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SOUTHERN  BRANCH, 

iJNIVERSlTY  OF  CALIFORNIA, 

LIBRARY, 

LOS  ANGELES.  CALIF. 


READERS  ON  COMMERCE  AND  INDUSTRY 


HOW  THE  WORLD   IS 
HOUSED 


BY 
FRANK    G.    CARPENTER 

AUTHOR  OF  carpenter's  GEOGRAPHICAL  READERS 


o><»<0 


46903 

NEW   YORK  •  :  •  CINCINNATI  • :  •  CIMCACO 

AMERICAN     BOOK    CO  M  1'  A  N  Y 


BOOKS  BY 
FRANK   G.    CARPENTER 

— ( — 
Ifntro&uction  to  Gcograpln^ 

AROUND  THE  WORLD  WITH   THE  CHILDREN 

Oeograpbical  IReaDers 

NORTH  AMERICA 

SOUTH  AMERICA 

EUROPE 

ASIA 

AFRICA 

AUSTRALIA  AND  ISLANDS  OF  THE  SEA 

IReaDers  on  Commerce  anD  IFiiDuetr^ 

HOW  THE  WORLD  IS  FED 
HOW  THE  WORLD  IS  CLOTHED 
HOW  TKE  WOPLC  IS  HOUSED 


^'  ■•'•"•[ 


FRANK  G.    CARPENTER. 

Entered  at  Stationers'  Hall,  London. 

carp.  world  is  housed. 
E.  p.  12 


PREFACE 

Food,  clothing,  and  shelter  are  man's  three  great  neces- 
sities.    They  are  common  to  all   races  and  tribes,  to   all 
localities,   and   to    all   times.      The   desire    for  them    has 
A    formed  the  basis  of  civilization,  and  how  far  that  desire 
V    has  been  satisfied  is  the  chief  criterion  of  the  civihzation 
which  each  people  possesses. 

For  these  reasons   it  is  of   great   importance   that  we 
I     should  know  as  much   as  possible  about  food,   clothing, 
^     and  shelter  as  they  relate  to  ourselves  and  other  nations. 
They   are  among  the   fundamental  elements  of   all   geo- 
graphical study  and  are  necessary  to  a  knowledge  of  the 
earth  as  the  home  of  man. 
-s  The  acquisition  of  this  knowledge  is  the  object  of  the 

travels  which  the  children  accompanied  by  the  author  are 
\  supposed  to  take  in  the  Carpenter  Readers  of  Industry 
1^  and  Commerce.  In  the  first  book  of  the  series,  entitled 
"  How  the  World  is  Fed,"  their  travels  are  devoted  to 
learning  about  the  sources  of  our  foods  and  how  they  are 
turned  into  the  forms  in  which  they  appear  on  our  tables. 
In  the  second  book,  "  How  the  World  is  Clothed,"  the  chil- 
dren go  over  the  globe  to  investigate  what  the  pc()i)]e  wear 
and  how  it  is  made.  The  third  volume  is  comprised  of 
the  pages  which  follow,  and  is  devoted  to  "How  the  World 
is  Housed."  In  this  book  the  children  travel  over  the 
globe  to  learn  for  themselves  where  the  materials  in  tluii- 

3 


4  PREFACE 

homes  come  from  and  how  they  are  prepared  for  use. 
They  also  study  the  homes  of  other  countries,  visiting  their 
little  world  brothers  and  sisters  and  seeing  how  they 
live. 

In  each  of  these  three  books  the  travels  are  made 
along  geographical  lines,  and  the  children,  while  studying 
the  industries  and  home  life  of  the  various  nations,  learn 
to  know  the  principal  trade  routes  and  other  branches  of 
the  world  of  commerce.  Their  imaginary  travels  give  them 
a  Hve  knowledge  of  many  geographical  features,  thereby 
vivifying  the  study  of  their  geographical  textbooks. 

In  "  How  the  World  is  Housed,"  the  children  are  first 
taught  the  evolution  of  the  house,  beginning  with  the 
homes  of  the  cave  men  and  the  tree  shelters  of  the 
aborigines  and  ending  with  the  enormous  buildings  of 
our  modern  civilization.  They  travel  among  the  tent 
dwellers  of  the  great  desert  countries,  visit  some  of  the 
people  who  still  live  in  huts,  and  also  those  who  have 
homes  of  grass,  cane,  and  leaves.  They  peep  into  the  odd 
houses  of  Asia  and  Africa,  and  see  something  of  those  of 
Europe  and  the  other  continents.  They  have  a  glance  at 
some  of  the  buildings  of  the  past,  and  especially  those  of 
colonial  times,  and  then  take  up  the  study  of  our  homes 
of  the  present. 

During  their  world-wide  travels  the  children  investigate 
the  sources  and  manufacture  of  building  materials.  They 
go  with  the  lumbermen  into  the  forests  and  watch  them 
chopping  the  trees  and  rafting  the  logs  to  the  mills. 
They  follow  the  logs  as  they  pass  through  the  band 
saws,  planers,  and  other  machines,  coming  forth  in  the 
shapes  used  in  modern  house  building.     At  the  same  time 


PREFACE  5 

the  extent  of  our  lumber  regions  is  shown,  and  also  the 
important  place  which  they  have  in  our  national  wealth. 

In  other  journeys  the  little  travelers  go  down  into  the 
quarries  from  whence  our  marbles,  granites,  slates,  and  other 
building  stones  come ;  and  learn  how  artificial  stones,  such 
as  concrete,  cement,  and  plaster,  are  made.  They  also 
visit  the  brickyards,  and  study  the  great  part  that  clay  has 
in  our  homes. 

The  next  subject  taken  up  is  iron  and  steel  as  regards 
modern  house  building.  To  learn  about  this  the  children 
enter  the  mines,  and  follow  the  ore  through  the  furnaces 
and  rolling  mills  until  it  at  last  appears  in  the  structural 
steel  shapes  of  our  great  office  buildings.  They  also  see 
the  metal  turned  into  nails,  screws,  locks,  and  hinges. 
They  then  investigate  tin  and  zinc  as  far  as  they  are 
related  to  building,  and  afterwards  learn  about  lead, 
copper,  and  brass.  Other  travels  are  devoted  to  glass, 
others  to  wood  pulp  and  paper,  and  still  others  to  paints, 
oils,  and  varnishes. 

An  important  part  of  the  book  is  that  wliich  treats  of 
the  heating,  lighting,  and  water  supply ;  and  others  are 
those  showing  the  wonders  of  our  factories,  thereby  giv- 
ing the  children  some  idea  of  the  advantages  of  the 
civilization  in  which  they  live. 

In  writing  this  volume  every  attempt  has  been  made 
to  fill  it  with  human  interest  and  child  interest  without 
descending  to  the  level  of  petty  curiosity.  It  is  a  live 
book  for  the  live,  wide  awake  American  boys  and  girls  of 
the  present  day,  who  are  here  traveling  over  the  globe  to 
examine  things  of  real  interest  to  them  ;  and  to  study  their 
world  brothers  and  sisters  as  such,  and  as  they  are  related 


6  PREFACE 

to  and  connected  with  them  in  the  work  of  the  world. 
It  is  beheved  that  these  many  journeys  will  do  much  to 
give  the  children  an  idea  of  the  earth  as  a  whole,  and 
of  the  relations  which  it  has  to  the  places  upon  it  in 
which  they  live. 

Acknowledgments  are  due  to  the  Buffalo  Sunday  Illus- 
trated Express,  the  Waldorf-Astoria  Hotel,  the  American 
Radiator  Company,  Atlantic  Terra  Cotta  Company,  Atlas 
Portland  Cement  Company,  Beal  and  Scott,  Pittsburgh  Plate 
Glass  Company,  Post  and  McCord,  Sherwin  Williams 
Company,  Standard  Sanitary  Manufacturing  Company, 
and  Yale  and  Towne  Manufacturing  Company  for  their 
courtesy  in  furnishing  material  for  illustrations. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER 

I .   Introduction 


2.  Among  the  Tent  Dwellers     .... 

3.  People  who  live  in  Huts        .... 

4.  Houses  of  Grass,  Cane,  and  Leaves 

5.  Some  Odd  Dwellings  of  Far-away  Lands    . 

6.  Homes  of  Colonial  Days         .... 

7.  In  the  World's  Great  Forests 

8.  Our  Logging  Industry 

9.  From  Log  to  Lumber 

10.  Woodworking  in  Other  Lands 

1 1 .  Among   the  Ruins  of   Some  Great   Buildings  of 

Past 

12.  A   Visit    to    the    Quarries  —  Marble,    Granite, 

Slate    

13.  Artificial  Stone  —  Concrete,  Cement,  and  Plaster 

14.  Brick  Structures  of  Antiquity 

15.  Our  American  Brickyards       .... 

16.  Iron 


17.  Mining  Iron 

18.  In  the  Furnaces  and  Rolling  Mills     . 

19.  Nails  and  Screws,  Locks  and  Hinges  . 

20.  Tin  and  Zinc 

21.  Lead,  Copper,  and  Brass 

22.  A  Trip  to  Fairyland 

23.  A  Visit  to  a  Glass  Factory 

24.  Paper  —  Wood  Pulp 

25.  The  Story  of  Paper 

26.  Pai.nts,  Oils,  and  Varnishes 

7 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER 


PAGE 

27.  Building  a  Home 232 

28.  The  World's  Tallest  Buildings 238 

29.  In  a  New  York  Hotel 247 

30.  Fire 257 

31.  Warming     our     Homes  —  Fireplaces,     Stoves,     Hot 

Water,  and   Steam 271 

32.  Lighting  the  House 278 

;i2.   Our  Great  Oil  Industry 286 

34.  How  Gas  is  made 291 

35.  Lighting  by  Electricity 299 

36.  Lamps  and  Burners.     How  Matches  are  made   .         .  307 

37.  The  Old  Oaken  Bucket  and  its  Successors        .        .  317 

38.  The  Water  Supply  of  Great  Cities     .         .         .         -325 

39.  Furniture 33i 

40.  Floor  Coverings 339 

Index 347 


HOW   THE  WORLD   IS   HOUSED 


I.     INTRODUCTION 

THIS  book  is  to  be  the  record  of  the  doings  of  a  party 
of  children  who  are  to  travel  with  the  author  over 
this  big  round  earth.  Each  one  who  reads  it  is  to  imagine 
himself  one  of  the  party,  and  we  are  to  go  together  over 
the  oceans  and  across  the  mountains  and  plains  looking 
at  and  learning  about  the  world  for  ourselves.  There 
will  be  so  much  to  see  that  we  must  keep  our  eyes  wide 
open.  We  shall  carry  cameras  with  us  to  photograph  the 
most  interesting  sights,  and  our  pencils  and  notebooks 
must  be  always  at  hand  to  write  down  the  things  we  wish 
to  remember  and  tell  to  our  people  at  home. 

We  shall  not  travel  without  an  object.  The  world  is  so 
large  and  it  has  so  much  to  show  us  that  we  might  spend 
our  whole  lives  in  journeying  over  it  and  not  sec  it  all. 
So  it  is  best  to  take  up  one  class  of  things  at  a  time,  and 
devote  our  journeys  to  that.  In  other  books  of  this  series 
we  have  already  gone  over  the  globe  to  learn  how  the 
world  is  fed,  and  how  it  is  clothed.  In  our  present  travels 
we  shall  try  to  find  out  how  it  is  housed.  We  shall  peep 
into  the  dwellings  of  our  little  brothers  and  sisters  of  other 
races  in  different  parts  of  the  earth  and  sec  how  they 
live.     We  want  to  know  how  their  houses  arc  made  and 

9 


10  INTRODUCTION 

furnished.  We  would  also  learn  as  to  our  own  homes  and 
how  they  are  constructed,  and  we  shall  go  to  the  places 
from  where  the  building  materials  come,  and  see  how  they 
are  prepared  for  our  shelter  and  comfort. 

All  this  will  require  many  long  journeys.  We  shall 
travel  over  the  various  grand  divisions,  and  explore  many 
parts  of  them.  We  shall  go  into  the  mighty  forests  to 
see  where  the  wood  comes  from  ;  to  the  quarries  to  watch 
men  getting  out  the  granite,  marble,  and  other  building 
stones ;  and  perhaps  descend  below  ground  to  learn  about 
the  iron,  copper,  tin,  and  other  metals  used  in  putting  them 
together.  We  shall  visit  factories  and  foundries  of  many 
kinds,  and  find  that  thousands  of  people  all  over  the 
world  are  always  at  work  in  the  industry  of  making  our 
houses.  We  shall  see  the  great  part  that  commerce  has 
to  do  with  preparing  the  materials  and  bringing  them  to 
the  places  where  they  are  required  for  building,  as  well 
as  in  erecting  the  structures.  Our  travels  will  therefore 
be  along  the  two  great  lines  of  industry  and  commerce, 
which  have  so  much  to  do  with  our  own  employment  and 
comfort. 

Before  we  start  out,  however,  let  us  have  a  little  talk 
about  those  people  who  lived  long  ago  before  houses,  as 
we  know  them,  existed.  No  one  can  tell  just  what  was  the 
first  language  spoken  or  just  where  was  the  first  place  on 
earth  that  man  lived  ;  and  in  the  same  way  it  is  hard  to  say 
what  the  first  house  was  like.  We  beUeve  that  all  mankind 
were  originally  savages.  They  either  went  naked  or 
dressed  in  skins  or  leaves,  and  in  all  probabihty  their 
earliest  shelters  were  the  wide-spreading  trees  of  the  for- 
ests in  which  they  lived.     They  crowded  around  the  trunks 


INTRODUCTION 


II 


of  the  trees  to  keep  out  of  the  sun  and  the  rain,  and  climbed 
into  the  branches  to  be  safe  from  the  wild  animals  that 
might  attack  them.  In  the  winter  they  sought  out  caves 
in  the  rocks  and  holes  in  the  earth  on  account  of  the  cold, 
often  driving  out  the  savage  beasts  who  had  their  homes 
there. 

After  a  short  time  man   learned  to  make  shelters  of 
branches  covered  with  leaves  or  grass,  and  then  to  twist 


Palm-leaf  huts. 

the  branches  together  and  chink  them  with  mud  into  huts. 
He  roofed  these  rude  shelters  with  grass  or  the  skins  of 
the  wild  animals  he  was  able  to  trap,  and  finally  learned 
how  to  sew  the  skins  into  tents. 

Indeed,  there  are  many  people  now  living  in  the  more 
savage  parts  of  the  world  who  have  shelters  as  rude  as 
those  of  our  own  ancestors  of  long  ago  days.  F'or  instance, 
in  the  islands  about  the  Strait  of  Magellan  at  the  south- 
ern end  of  South  America,  I  have  seen  natives  who  go 
almost  naked.      They  have  no  villages  nor  fixed  habita- 


12  INTRODUCTION 

tions  and  move  about  fishing  and  hunting,  making  rude 
shelters  wherever  they  stop.  They  choose  a  bushy  spot, 
and,  bending  the  branches  together,  tie  them  at  the  top. 
They  then  break  off  other  branches  and  lean  them  against 
this  framework,  making  a  little  tent  about  three  feet  high 
into  which  they  crawl  to  sleep  at  night.  Their  food  is  fish 
and  mussels  and  such  small  animals  as  they  can  trap  and 
kill  with  their  bows  and  arrows.  They  have  no  stoves  and 
cook  on  fires  in  the  open  air.  They  are  wild  savages, 
and  live  but  little  better  than  beasts. 

It  is  much  the  same  with  the  tribes  of  black  people  who 
inhabit  the  wilder  parts  of  Australia.  They  make  their 
shelters  by  tearing  off  pieces  of  bark  from  the  fallen  trees 
and  leaning  them  against  one  another.  The  pygmies  of 
the  great  forests  of  the  Kongo  in  the  heart  of  Central 
Africa  have  no  better  homes.  They  are  black  dwarfs,  so 
small  that  the  full-grown  men  and  women  are  no  taller 
than  American  boys  and  girls  of  twelve  and  thirteen. 
They  wear  almost  no  clothing,  and  but  few  of  them  have 
permanent  homes.  Most  of  these  little  people  travel 
about  from  place  to  place,  sleeping  upon  the  ground  or  in 
the  branches  of  trees.  Some  of  them  dwell  in  caves,  and 
others  in  rude  huts  of  bark  which  they  erect  where  they 
stop.  A  few  of  the  tribes  have  villages  or  collections  of 
such  shelters. 

The  ordinary  pygmy  house  is  so  low  that  we  could  hardly 
stand  upright  within  it,  and  the  entrances  are  such  that 
the  little  owners  themselves  have  to  crawl  in.  It  is  usually 
of  an  oblong  shape  with  two  doors,  one  in  front  and  one 
behind,  so  that  the  pygmies  may  run  out  at  the  back  if 
attacked  at  the  front.     The  houses  are  formed  of  branches 


INTRODUCTION 


13 


stuck  into  the  ground,  so  that  they  lean  towards  one  an- 
other. They  are  tied  at  the  top,  and  the  sides  and  top 
are  rudely  thatched  with  leaves  and  grass.     They  have  no 


furniture.  The  pygmies  sleep  upon  the  ground  or  on 
beds  of  leaves.  They  live  upon  roots,  and  by  trapping 
and  hunting,  their  weapons  being  bows  and  poisoned 
arrows. 

Very  similar  to  these  people  are  our  own  little  brown 
cousins,  the  Negritos,  or  black  dwarfs  of  the  Philippine 
Islands.  They  wander  about  from  place  to  place,  putting 
up  shelters  to  sleep  under  when  night  overtakes  them. 
They  sometimes  dwell  in  caves  or  holes  in  the  rocks,  and 
we  may  suppose  that  their  homes  arc  much  the  same  as 
those  of  our  race  before  it  began  to  be  civilized. 


14 


INTRODUCTION 


Caves  have  been  found  in  England,  France,  and  in  other 
parts  of  Europe  in  which  man  once  dwelt,  and  in  them 
the  tools  of  bone  and  flint  which  he  then  used.  In  some 
places  our  ancestors  of  the  long-ago  days  cut  homes  for 
themselves  out  of  the  soft  rock ;  and,  even  now,  in  the 
loess  country  of  western  China,  there  are  people  who 
dwell  in  similar  homes.  The  soil  there  is  many  feet  deep, 
and  of  such  a  nature  that  the  streams  and  roads  have  cut 
deep  ravines  through  it,  the  walls  of  which  are  almost 
perpendicular.  In  these  walls  the  people  have  made 
rooms  and  fitted  in  doors  and  windows,  forming  dwellings 
which  are  comfortable  and  not  at  all  damp. 


"In  Tunis  are  tribes  which  have  homes  in  the  cliffs." 


INTRO  DUCl  ION  1$ 

Not  far  from  the  Gulf  of  Gabes  in  Tunis,  on  the  edge 
of  the  Desert  of  Sahara,  are  tribes  which  have  similar 
homes  in  the  cliffs.  In  the  southwestern  part  of  our 
country  are  to  be  found  the  remains  of  the  Indian  cliff 
dwellers,  who  lived  in  the  crevices  of  the  cliffs  which  they 
walled  up  with  stone,  and  still  farther  south  in  Mexico  are 
other  cliff  dwellers.  In  the  northern  parts  of  Alaska  the 
Eskimos  build  their  winter  homes  half  underground, 
roofing  them  with  snow,  and  digging  passages  below  the 
earth  through  which  they  go  in  and  out.  In  many  newly 
settled  countries  the  pioneers  often  use  caves  as  dwellings 
until  they  can  erect  more  comfortable  homes,  and  there 
are  now  houses  made  of  sod  and  clay  in  different  parts  of 
our  West  which  are  almost  like  caves. 

Returning  again  to  that  long-ago  time  when  men  were 
but  little  better  than  savages,  we  may  suppose  one  of  them 
grew  tired  of  his  cave  home  or  brush  tent  and  tried  to 
make  a  permanent  shelter  which  the  rain  could  not  enter 
nor  the  wind  blow  away.  To  do  this  he  piled  up  stones 
into  rude  walls,  and  made  a  roof  of  some  kind  above  them, 
thus  constructing  the  first  hut  or  real  house.  His  fellows 
did  likewise,  and  step  by  step  man  discovered  how  to 
make  the  foundations,  to  improve  the  roofs,  and  to  form 
the  doors  and  openings  for  light  and  air. 

The  first  tools  were  of  stone,  bone,  horn,  and  wood. 
Later,  as  man  learned  how  to  work  in  metal,  he  made  im- 
]jlements  of  copper  and  bronze  and,  after  many  ages,  of 
iron  and  steel.  As  the  tools  became  better  the  shelters 
steadily  improved.  The  stones  were  cut  into  blocks  and 
the  trees  chopped  into  logs.  After  a  time  smooth  walls  of 
stone  or  wood  were  constructed,  and  roofed  with  flat  stones 


i6 


INTRODUCTION 


or  hewn  boards  and  afterwards  with  shingles  and  slate. 
Then  somebody  discovered  how  to  make  bricks,  and  plaster 
and  cement  came. 


Cliff  dwellings  in  Arizona. 

By  and  by  the  secrets  of  glassmaking  were  learned,  and 
step  by  step  invention  marched  along  with  industry  until 
the  rude  huts  became  houses  and  the  villages  grew  into 
cities.     Civilized    man    then   began  to  make  temples  and 


AMONG  THE   TEXT   DWELLERS  1 7 

palaces  and  mighty  structures  of  every  description.  The 
work  of  improvement  went  on  in  small  buildings  as  well 
as  in  great,  until  we  now  have  our  wonderful  homes  made 
of  materials  gathered  by  commerce  from  all  parts  of  the 
world,  and,  by  industry,  so  combined  that  they  give  us  all 
the  comforts  and  conveniences  of  modern  life. 

In  our  travels  we  shall  find  races  and  tribes  who  are 
now  living  in  the  many  different  stages  through  which 
man  has  risen  in  making  a  home  for  himself,  and,  by 
our  imagination,  can  see  how  our  ancestors  lived  M'hen 
they  were  passing  through  these  same  conditions.  More- 
over, by  observing  the  ruins  left  by  the  people  of  those 
long-ago  days,  we  shall  learn  something  of  the  houses 
in  which  they  dwelt. 

2.     AMONG   THE   TENT   DWELLERS 

WE  shall  begin  our  journeys  to-day  by  visiting  some  of 
the  simpler  homes  of  mankind.  One  of  the  first 
was  the  tent.  It  came  into  use  during  the  early  stages  of 
civilization  when  man  maintained  himself  largely  by  hunt- 
ing and  needed  a  shelter  which  he  could  carry  with  him  to 
the  spots  where  the  game  was  nuxst  ])lcntiful.  Later  on  it 
became  the  home  of  those  who  lived  by  rearing  cattle 
and  sheep,  the  animals  being  driven  long  distances  to 
the  best  feeding  grounds.  This  was  so  in  the  days  of  the 
Scriptures.  In  Genesis  we  read  that  Jabal  "  was  the 
father  of  such  as  dwell  in  tents,  and  of  such  as  have 
cattle  "  ;  and  that  Abraham  "  sat  in  the  tent  door  in  the 
heat  of  the  day." 

CAkK  HOUSES  —  2 


i8 


AMONG   THE  TENT   DWELLERS 


The  first  tent  was  probably  of  leaves  or  skins  sewed  to. 
gether,  and  stretched  over  a  framework  of  poles,  or  the 
branches  of  trees.  It  may  have  been  like  the  wigwams  of 
poles  covered  with  skins  in  which  our  Indians  were  living 
at  the  time  that  America  was  discovered,  or  the  skin  tents 
which  now  form  the  summer  homes  of  the  Eskimos  in  the 
northern  parts  of  our  continent.  Skin  tents  are  the  dwell- 
ings of  some  of  the  natives  of  Siberia  who  travel  about 
in  their  reindeer  sledges,  and  also  of  the  Mongols  of  the 
Desert  of  Gobi  and  the  regions  beyond  the  Great  Chinese 
Wall.  The  latter  have  circular  dweUings  made  of  a  frame- 
work covered  with  skins.  Tents  of  skin  are  common  in 
parts  of  Thibet,  where  yaks  are  used  to  carry  them  from 
place  to  place.  They  are  also  the  homes  of  certain  tribes 
of  Hottentots,  and  other  wandering  African  peoples. 


Australian  shelters. 

The  first  cloth  tent  was  probably  of  felt,  somewhat  simi- 
lar to  that  now  used  by  the  nomads  of  Persia,  or  by  the 
Kirghiz  of  western  Asia.     The  Kirghiz  have  round  tents 


AMONG  THE  TENT   DWELLERS 


The  Kirghiz  have  round  tents  on  latticework  frames. 


of  a  considerable  size.  They  are  upheld  by  a  folding  lat- 
ticework frame  made  of  sections  which  can  be  opened  and 
closed  and  therefore  can  easily  be  packed  upon  horses  and 
carried  to  new  grazing  grounds.  After  this  wooden  frame- 
work is  set  up,  a  cover  of  thick  felted  cloth  is  spread 
over  it,  being  stretched  tight  around  the  walls.  It  has  a 
door  at  the  front,  and  is  fastened  at  the  bottom  with 
stones  or  pegs.  The  Kirghiz  rear  many  horses  and  sheep, 
and  their  chief  food  is  mutton  and  h<jrse  flesh,  which  they 
sometimes  eat  with  mare's  milk.  They  milk  their  mares 
as  we  milk  our  cows. 

When  man  learned  the  arts  of  spinning  and  weaving,  he 
made  tents  of  wool,  flax,  and  other  fibers.  As  time  went 
on  his  tent  coverings  became  thicker  and  stronger,  until 
at  last  was  invented   the  tightly  constructed  waterproof 


20  AMONG  THE  TENT   DWELLERS 

canvas  which  forms  the  material  of  the  army  tent  of  to- 
day. It  is  made  chiefly  of  the  fibers  of  hemp  or  flax, 
and  is  one  of  the  strongest  of  cloths.  Such  tents  are  used 
by  soldiers  all  over  the  world.  When  on  the  march  each 
man  carries  upon  his  back  a  small  one  in  which  to  sleep 
at  night ;  but  in  camp  he  lives  in  the  larger  tents  brought 
along  in  the  baggage  wagons.  There  are  also  large  and 
well-equipped  tents  for  the  hospitals  and  for  the  officers. 

In  the  past  some  of  the  tents  used  by  the  commanders 
were  gorgeous.  That  of  Alexander  the  Great  was  so  big 
that  one  hundred  people  could  sleep  in  it,  its  cloth  roof 
being  upheld  by  eight  pillars  plated  with  gold.  Another 
famous  Persian  commander  had  a  tent  of  red  wool  lined 
with  violet  satin  beautifully  embroidered.  This  was  sup- 
ported by  poles  decorated  with  carvings  and  inlaid  with 
mother-of-pearl.  The  floor  was  carpeted  with  costly  rugs, 
and  the  whole  interior  was  furnished  more  like  the  palace 
of  a  king  than  the  home  of  a  rough  soldier. 

We  take  canvas  tents  when  we  go  out  to  hunt  and  fish. 
They  are  to  be  seen  at  camp  meetings,  and  are  used  by 
the  circus  people  and  others  who  carry  shows  about  the 
country.  They  form  the  homes  of  engineers  and  their 
men  when  laying  out  and  constructing  railroads,  and  of  all 
people  who  require  temporary  shelters. 

The  chief  tent  dwellers  of  the  world,  however,  are  no- 
mads who  live  in  Africa  and  Asia.  They  inhabit  the 
arid  regions  of  both  continents ;  the  Tatars,  including  the 
Kirghiz  and  Mongols,  being  found  in  parts  of  northern 
and  western  Asia,  and  the  Arabs,  Bedouins,  and  others 
living  in  the  vast  sandy  wastes  of  the  Sahara  in  Africa. 
There  are  also  many  tent  dwellers  in  Arabia  and  Persia. 


AMONG  THE  TENT   DWELLERS 


21 


The  life  of  these  nomadic  or  wandering  peoples  is  every- 
where much  the  same.  They  are  chiefly  pastoral  tribes 
who  live  by  rearing  horses,  camels,  cattle,  sheep,  and  goats, 
moving  about  from  place  to  place  with  their  flocks  to  the 
best  feeding  grounds. 

Suppose  we  visit  some  of  the  Arabs  of  the  great  Desert 


"\^' 


:..l^. 


Shepherds  of  the  Sahara  live  in  tent  villages. 


of  Sahara.  We  have  crossed  the  Atlantic  Ocean  and  have 
passed  through  the  Strait  of  Gibraltar  into  the  Mediterra- 
nean Sea.  Landing  at  Algiers  we  make  our  way  over 
the  Atlas  Mountains  down  into  a  region  which  is  almost 
all  bare  rock  and  sand.  There  is  a  scanty  growth  of  coarse 
grass  here  and  there  along  the  edge  of  the  desert,  and  in 
the  valleys  or  beds  of  its  rivers  and  streams  which  are 
dry  the  greater  part  of  the  year.     At  long  distances  apart 


22  AMONG   THE   TENT   DWELLERS 

are  the  oases,  patches  of  green  in  the  midst  of  sand, 
watered  only  by  springs  or  underground  streams.  In 
some  of  the  oases  are  villages  and  in  the  larger  ones  cities 
or  towns. 

The  Arab  tent  dwellers  live  out  in  the  waste.  They 
move  about  with  their  flocks  and  herds,  feeding  at  each 
green  spot  until  the  grass  is  all  eaten  and  then  going  on 
to  new  pastures.  Owing  to  the  sparseness  of  the  vegeta- 
tion they  cannot  have  fixed  habitations.  It  does  not  pay 
them  to  build  houses  at  each  stopping  place,  and  they  must 
have  portable  dwellings  which  they  can  take  down  and  put 
up  as  they  wish. 

The  Sahara  is  a  wild  country,  and  many  of  its  inhabit- 
ants are  fierce  men  who  prey  upon  their  fellows.  There- 
fore the  shepherds  travel  about  together  in  order  that  they 
may  be  able  to  defend  themselves  and  their  stock  against 
robbers.  They  live  in  little  tent  villages,  to  which  as  night 
falls  they  drive  their  camels,  sheep,  and  goats. 

We  are  surprised  at  the  extent  of  the  Sahara.  If  that 
great  desert  could  be  lifted  up  like  a  quilt  and  spread  over 
our  country  it  would  cover  every  bit  of  it  and  hide  a  part 
of  Canada  and  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  It  is  bigger  than  all 
Europe;  and  there  are  many,  many  thousands  of  shep- 
herds who  graze  their  flocks  on  the  thin  grass  which 
is  found  here  and  there.  Such  as  have  camels  feed  them 
upon  the  thorn  bushes  as  well. 

Let  us  pay  a  visit  to  one  of  these  little  Bedouin  villages. 
It  stands  near  a  stream,  far  out  on  the  sandy  plain,  without 
a  tree  or  a  house  or  any  other  building  in  sight.  The 
only  living  things  about  are  the  dark-skinned  men, 
women,  and  children,  and  the  animals  belonging  to  them. 


AMONG  THE  TENT   DWELLERS  23 

The  tents  are  scattered  over  the  sand  and  in  their  midst 
is  a  walled  inclosure  in  which  the  sheep  and  goats  are 
driven  at  night. 

Now  suppose  we  examine  the  tents.  Did  you  ever  see 
such  curious  dwellings  ?  They  are  so  low  that  one  has  to 
bend  down  on  his  hands  and  knees  to  go  into  them.  They 
are  made  of  coarse  black  cloth  woven  in  stripes,  spread 
over  poles,  and  tied  down  by  pegs  in  the  sand.  As  we 
come  nearer  we  stoop  and  look  in.  There  is  but  little 
furniture.  There  are  no  chairs  or  tables  and  the  only 
beds  are  rugs  or  cloths  spread  out  upon  the  sand.  Lying 
about  are  a  few  saddles,  and  some  bags  filled  with  cloth- 
ing. This  little  home  has  a  wall  of  cloth  through  the 
center,  dividing  it  into  two  parts,  of  which  one  is  intended 
for  the  women  and  children,  and  the  other  for  the  men 
and  older  boys.  Others  of  the  tents  have  but  one  room, 
where  all  live  together. 

See  the  little  ones  playing  about  outside.  They  are 
dark-skinned,  made  so  by  the  sun,  which  is  hot  in  this  part 
of  the  world.  They  roll  about  in  the  sand.  They  pile  up 
stones,  forming  inclosures  like  those  their  fathers  have 
made  for  the  flocks,  and  put  white  and  black  stones  inside 
them,  pretending  they  are  sheep  and  goats. 

Now  look  there  away  off  at  the  right.  See  those  boys 
who  are  aiding  their  father  in  watching  the  sheep  feed- 
ing on  that  green  patch  in  a  hollow  place  near  the  stream. 
The  boys  wear  long  gowns  of  white  and  their  heads  are 
wrapped  up  in  white  cloths  around  which  thick  strands  of 
brown  rope  are  tied.  The  man  has  on  a  turban  and  his 
long  white  gown  falls  to  his  feet. 

But  see,  they  arc  coming  this  way.     The  sun  is  just  set- 


24 


AMONG   THE  TENT   DWELLERS 


the  night 


up 


ting  and  they  are  driving  the  sheep  and  goats  home  for 
They  greet  us  in  a  friendly  way,  as  they  come 
and  at  their  invitation  we  sit  down  and  take  dinner 

with  them.  The 
meal  is  spread  on 
the  sand  just  out- 
side their  little  tent 
home.  It  consists 
of  a  kid  which  was 
killed  in  our  honor, 
and  of  couscous 
made  of  flour,  herbs, 
and  flesh.  The  flour 
is  of  millet,  ground 
by  the  girls  between 
two  stones,  moved 
one  over  the  other, 
thus  crushing  the 
grain.  The  kid  is 
served  whole,  and 
our  host  tears  it 
apart  and  cuts  great  slices  for  us.  We  all  eat  with  our 
fingers,  and  at  the  close  are  given  some  dried  dates  for 
dessert.  Our  drink  is  water  from  a  goatskin  bag  filled  at 
the  stream,  and  tea  served  with  sugar  and  mint. 

As  we  travel  on  our  camels  over  the  desert  we  pass 
many  tent  villages,  and  frequently  see  Arabs  driving  their 
flocks  to  new  feeding  grounds.  They  are  always  on  the 
march,  although  they  may  now  and  then  stop  for  a  time 
near  some  oasis  to  sell  their  sheep  or  wool,  and  see 
something  of  the  life  of  the  towns.     They  are  soon  on  the 


Indian  tent. 


AMONG   THE   TENT   DWELLERS 


25 


way  again,  however ;  and  even  while  near  the  oases  they 
dwell  in  their  tents.  Many  of  the  Arab  shepherd  boys 
do  not  know  where  they  will  be  living  next  month,  and 
some  have  several  different  homes  in  the  course  of  the 
year.  Such  is  the  life  of  the  nomadic  tent  dwellers,  of 
whom  millions  are  living  to-day.  It  was  the  same  with 
the  Indian  boys  who,  with  their  parents,  roamed  the 
United  States  searching  for  new  hunting  grounds  at  the 
time  our  forefathers  came,  and  it  is  still  so  with  many  of 
our  Eskimo  cousins  who,  with  their  dogs  and  their  rein- 
deer, move  their  skin  tents  from  place  to  place  during  the 
summer  on  the  lookout  for  srame. 


Skin  tents  forna  the  summer  homes  of  the  Eskimos 


26 


PEOPLE   WHO   LIVE   IN   HUTS 


3.     PEOPLE   WHO    LIVE   IN    HUTS 

THE  hut  is  the  simplest  form  of  man's  permanent 
home.  It  has  been  used  since  the  beginning  of 
history,  and  is  still  to  be  found  in  one  shape  or  another  all 
over  the  globe.  It  is  the  chief  house  of  the  African,  and 
about  the  only  shelter  used  by  the  natives  of  the  islands 


Sod  hut  in  Lapland. 

of  the  South  Seas.  There  are  millions  in  China  and  India 
who  dwell  in  huts,  and  we  shall  see  such  habitations 
scattered  over  the  South  American  continent.  Even  in 
civilized  Europe  and  in  our  own  North  America  some  of 
the  poorest  of  the  people  have  huts  of  one  kind  or  another ; 


PEOPLE   WHO   LIVE   IN    HUTS 


27 


and  indeed,  such  dwellings,  made  of  straw,  stone,  brick, 
and  wood  are  to  be  found  all  over  the  globe. 

The  character  of  the  hut  depends  largely  upon  the 
building  material  at  hand,  as  well  as  upon  the  climate 
and  needs  of  those  who  are  to  Hve  in  it.  In  the  cold 
lands  of  the  far  north,  the  Eskimos  employ  thick  blocks 
of  ice,  which  they  build  up  in  a  dome  shape.  These  icy 
houses  have  very  small  openings,  as  one  of  the  chief 
objects  of  the  hut  is 
for  warmth.  Is  it 
not  strange  to  use 
ice  to  keep  warm  .-' 

In  the  hot  lands 
of  the  Equator,  huts 
are  often  made  of 
bamboo  canes 
woven  together, 
and  thatched  with  palm  leaves  or  grasses  of  various  kinds. 
Sometimes  they  are  mere  shelters  without  walls  ;  and  at 
others  are  loosely  put  together  that  the  air  may  blow 
through.     The  aim  there  is  to  keep  cool. 

Near  Timbuktu,  in  the  Desert  of  Sahara,  far  north  of 
where  we  are  now  traveling,  are  beds  of  rock  salt  out  of 
which  the  jjcople  take  blocks  to  sell  to  the  caravans,  which 
carry  them  to  the  oases  and  countries  to  the  southward, 
where  salt  is  in  demand.  The  miners  make  their  houses 
of  these  blocks.  There  is  no  rain  in  that  part  of  the  des- 
ert, and  the  salt  serves  for  both  walls  and  roofs. 

If  we  should  go  to  the  plains  and  lowlands  of  the  world 
we  might  find  millions  of  men,  women,  and  children  living 
in  rude  dwellings  of  mud  and  sun-dried  bricks.     Many  such 


Section  showing  interior  of  Eskimo  house 


28 


PEOPLE   WHO   LIVE   IN   HUTS 


places  have  but  few  stones,  and  the  mud  is  often  plastered 
over  a  framework  of  poles,  canes,  or  grasses  in  making  the 
walls,  while  similar  materials  serve  for  the  roofs  or  a  thatch 
takes  their  places. 


Eskimo  village,  eastern  Alaska. 

In  the  mountains  and  other  rocky  regions  we  shall  find 
huts  of  stone  or  of  earth  mixed  with  stone ;  and  where  the 
vegetation  is  dense,  some  of  grass  and  leaves,  or  perhaps 
of  logs  laid  up  like  the  cabins  used  by  our  forefathers. 

Indeed,  the  huts  are  so  many  that  it  will  be  impossible 
for  us  to  examine  them  all.  They  are  usually  the  homes 
of  the  poor,  and  in  the  wilder  parts  of  the  earth  are  little 
more  than  shelters  from  the  weather  and  places  for  sleep- 
ing at  night.  There  are  many  such  dwellings  on  this  great 
continent  of  Africa,  where  we  now  are,  and  we  shall  visit 
some  of  them  first. 


PEOPLE   WHO   LIVE   IN   HUTS 


29 


The  huts  of  the  oases  have  walls  of  mud  with  a  frame- 
work of  date  palm  wood  for  their  windows  and  doors. 
Such  houses  are  small,  seldom  containing  more  than  two 
or  three  rooms.  The  ground  is  the  floor,  and  the  flat  roof 
is  often  of  palm  branches  woven  together  and  covered  with 
mud.  There  is  but  little  rain,  and  waterproof  coverings  are 
not  needed.  The  houses  are  built  in  villages  along  nar- 
row streets,  without  sidewalks. 

In  the  larger  oases  the  people  have  better  homes ;  and, 
in  Ghadames,  a  town  in  the  heart  of  the  desert,  the  houses 
are  of  two  stories,  the  upper  ones  extending  out  over  the 
streets,  so  that  going  through  it  is  like  traveling  through 


A  street  in  an  oasis  village. 


30  PEOPLE   WHO   LIVE   IN   HUTS 

tunnels.  There  are  stores  on  the  ground  floor,  and  the 
people  live  in  the  rooms  overhead.  The  buildings  are  box- 
shaped,  with  flat  roofs,  which  often  form  the  beds  of  the 
family. 

Travehng  on  eastward  we  come  to  the  homes  of  the 
Egyptians  in  the  Valley  of  the  Nile.  The  majority  of 
these  people  are  peasants,  who  dwell  in  huts  of  sun-dried 
brick.  Their  building  materials  are  about  the  same  as 
those  used  when  the  Israelites  worked  here  for  Pharaoh 
in  the  times  of  the  Bible.  The  huts  stand  in  villages  on 
the  banks  of  the  river,  or  along  the  narrow  roadways 
which  run  through  the  green  fields  on  both  sides  of  the 
Nile.  They  are  often  shaded  by  date  palms.  They  look 
bare  and  dreary,  and  have  few  of  the  comforts  of  even  the 
poorest  of  our  American  homes. 

These  Egyptian  houses  are  so  small  that  we  can  see  over 
the  roofs  as  we  sit  on  our  camels.  They  are  seldom  more 
than  fifteen  feet  square,  and  have  only  one  or  two  rooms. 
The  roofs  are  flat.  On  many  of  them  are  stored  the 
bundles  of  cornstalks  and  brush  which  the  people  use  for 
fuel.  Imagine  having  your  woodpile  or  coal  bin  on  the 
roof ! 

Egyptian  huts  have  no  chimneys.  The  cooking  is  done 
on  a  clay  stove  out  of  doors.  The  windows  are  high  up, 
and  are  little  more  than  holes  in  the  walls.  There  is  no 
furniture  to  speak  of,  and  a  ledge  of  earth  at  the  side  of 
the  room  serves  as  the  bed  and  chairs  of  the  family.  In 
the  towns  the  houses  are  better,  and  in  the  cities  some  are 
as  large  and  as  fine  as  our  own  homes. 

Leaving  the  Nile  Valley  and  traveling  to  the  southward 
we  pass  through  wild  lands  where  the  huts  are  of  every 


Egyptian  huts. 


(31) 


32 


PEOPLE   WHO   LIVE   IN   HUTS 


description.     On  the  high  plateau  of  East  Africa,  not  far 
from  Mount  Kilimanjaro,  live  the  Masai,  who  have  circular 


Building  a  Kafir  home  of  ant  clay. 

dwellings  made  of  woven  canes  and  elephant  grass  plas- 
tered over  with  mud  ;  and  near  Lake  Tchad  is  Kuka,  a 
large  city  whose  houses  are  walled  with  reeds  covered 
with  mud,  and  roofed  with  straw  thatch. 

In  the  far  southern  parts  of  the  continent  live  the  Kafirs, 
black  people  who  have  dome-roofed  dwellings  of  mud,  and 
in  other  sections  are  other  mud  huts  of  various  kinds. 
Not  a  few  of  these  mud  villages  are  in  localities  where 
wood  is  abundant,  and  we  wonder  why  the  natives  do  not 
use  logs.  One  reason  is  the  white  ant,  which  is  found  in 
great  numbers  all  over  Africa.  This  little  insect  will  eat 
anything  wooden.  It  works  in  the  dark,  and  will  burrow 
inside  a  rafter  or  post  and  eat  away  at  it  until  only  a  shell 
is  left,  when  the  structure  of  which  it  is  a  part  falls  to  the 
ground.     These  ants  are  home  builders  themselves.     They 


PEOPLE   WHO   LIVE   IN   HUTS 


33 


dwell  in  great  mounds  of  many  rooms  which  they  con- 
struct by  mixing  the  clay  or  earth  with  a  juice  or  saliva 
from  their  mouths.  This  turns  the  clay  to  a  cement 
which,  as  it  dries,  hardens  like  stone. 

In  making  their  huts  the  natives  often  use  this  cement- 
like earth  which  the  white  ants  have  prepared.  They 
either  drive  out  the  ants,  or  take  one  of  the  abandoned  ant 
hills,  and,  by  pounding  and  mixing  the  clay  with  water, 
make  a  mortar,  which  they  use  to  cover  the  framework  of 
their  huts,  forming  excellent  walls.  They  spread  this  stuff 
over  the  ground  for  the  floors,  and  thus  have  dwellings 
which  the  white  ants  will  not  destroy. 

In  many  other  parts  of  Africa  the  huts  are  made  of 
grasses  and  canes  of  various  kinds.  The  tribes  about 
Lake  Victoria  have  many  such  homes,  each  built  after  a 


L:  '.L-', li.,; 
CAKr.  IIOUSLS  — 3 


.::i'_    ill    U.^ii'J. 


34 


PEOPLE   WHO   LIVE   IN   HUTS 


style  of  its  own.  Some  dwell  in  villages  composed  of 
houses  surrounding  corrals  or  fenced  yards  in  which  the 
cattle,   sheep,    and  goats  are   kept  at  night ;    and   others, 


A  hut  on  the  shores  of  Lake  Victoria. 

such  as  the  people  of  Uganda,  have  towns  made  of  great 
and  small  huts  of  elephant  grass,  the  stalks  of  which  are 
about  as  thick  as  your  finger.  The  Uganda  dwellings  are 
so  beautifully  woven  that  they  look  like  basketwork.  The 
roofs  are  of  a  thick  thatch  which  shines  like  silver-gray 
velvet  in  the  afternoon  sun. 

As  to  huts  of  stone,  they  are  found  in  the  mountainous 
parts  of  Africa,  as  well  as  in  all  other  stony  regions,  scat- 
tered over  the  earth's  surface.  There  are  many  in  the 
Atlas  Mountains,  and  in  the  Himalayas,  the  Alps,  and  the 
Caucasus.  I  have  seen  them  high  up  in  the  Andes,  where 
the  Indians  sometimes  chink  the  holes  between  the  stones 
with  mud.     The  Indian  homes  are  little  better  than  ken- 


PEOPLE   WHO   LIVE   IN    HUTS 


35 


nels,  and  not  much  greater  in  size.  They  have  no  chim- 
neys, and  their  thatched  roofs  are  often  held  down  with 
stones  on  account  of  the  high  winds.  Near  them  are  the 
stone-walled  inclosures  where  the  llamas,  alpacas,  and 
sheep  are  kept  at  night. 

Going  down  to  the  lowlands  on  either  side  of  the  Andes, 
we  find  hut  dwellings  with  walls  of  reeds  or  of  canes 
thatched  with  grass  or  palm  leaves.  There  are  many  rude 
shelters  along  the  Amazon  and    Parana  rivers.     There  are 


i'z    ^licliel.3    aiulrg    11. e    AlliaZuh 


huts  of  sun-dried  brit  k  in  Chile  and  Peru,  and  in  the  city 
of  Lima  the  chief  buildings,  including  the  cathedral,  are 
formed  almost  entirclv  of  mud.     The  South  American  des- 


36  HOUSES   OF  GRASS,   CANE,   AND   LEAVES 

ert,  which  Hes  under  the  Andes  on  the  west  coast,  is  like 
the  Sahara,  in  that  it  seldom  has  rain;  and  one  heavy 
storm,  such  as  is  frequent  in  the  Amazon  Valley,  would  re- 
duce the  Peruvian  capital  city  to  the  material  our  children 
use  in  making  mud  pies. 

4.     HOUSES   OF    GRASS,   CANE,   AND   LEAVES 

IT  seems  strange  to  think  of  American  citizens  spending 
their  lives  in  shelters  of  grass,  cane,  and  leaves.  Uncle 
Sam  has  many  such  people,  although  they  are  not  on  this 
continent.  They  are,  however,  under  the  rule  of  the 
United  States  government,  and  we  may  rightly  call  them 
our  little  brown  cousins.  Take  our  relatives  of  Porto 
Rico,  for  instance.  The  poorer  of  them  dwell  in  huts  of 
cane  or  palm  leaves.  The  Samoans,  who  live  in  the  mid- 
dle of  the  Pacific  Ocean,  have  houses  of  grass.  Until 
within  a  few  years  the  natives  of  the  Hawaiian  Islands 
dwelt  in  grass  shelters,  and  to-day  there  are  many  people 
in  Guam  whose  homes  are  thatched  huts.  Farther  off  in  the 
Philippines  thousands  of  the  poorer  classes  inhabit  cane 
dwellings,  the  bamboo  forming  one  of  their  chief  building 
materials,  and  the  broad  leaves  of  the  palm  another. 

But  suppose  we  take  ship  and  visit  some  of  our  rela- 
tives in  these  far-away  lands.  We  shall  start  with  Samoa. 
The  first  hut  we  enter  looks  like  a  haystack  upon  poles. 
Its  thatched  roof  has  been  turned  silver-gray  by  the  weather. 
It  reaches  almost  to  the  ground,  extending  beyond  the  gay- 
colored  mats  which  form  the  walls  of  the  dwelling.  The 
mats  rest  against  round  posts  which  uphold  the  roof,  and 
are  so  hung  that  they  can  be  rolled  up,  allowing  the  air 


HOUSES   OF  GRASS,   CANE,   AND   LEAVES 


37 


to  blow  through.     The  floor  is  the  ground,  which  has  been 
covered  with  pebbles.     There  is  a  fire  hole  in  the  center, 


A  grass  tent  of  the  Andc,  . 

the  smoke  from   which   has  so  colored  the  inside  that  the 
posts  and  roof  shine  like  jet. 

Upon  the  floor,  mats  of  woven  grass  have  been  spread, 
and  it  is  there  that  we  sit  or  lie  as  we  talk  with  our  little 


46903 


38 


HOUSES   OF  GRASS,   CANE,   AND   LEAVES 


fellow  citizens  about  themselves  and  their  homes.  They 
show  us  the  furniture,  consisting  mainly  of  clay  pots, 
bowls  of  coconut  shell  or  gourds,  wooden  pillows,  and 
mats  of  one  kind  or  another.  There  are  no  stoves  for 
heating,  as  the  climate  is  warm,  and  the  only  fire  used  is 

for  cooking  or  to 
make  a  smoke  to 
keep  out  the  mos- 
quitoes. There  are 
no  bathing  arrange- 
m  e  n  t  s,  but  the 
people  wash  them- 
selves daily  in  the 
surf  of  the  ocean  or 
in  the  cold  streams 
from  the  hills- 
Traveling  west- 
ward on  our  way  to 
the  Philippines  we 
stop  at  the  Fiji, 
Tonga,  and  other 
islands  of  the  South 
Sea,  as  this  part  of 
the  Pacific  is  called. 
The  dwellings  here  are  much  alike.  They  are  of  grass  or 
cane,  varying  in  size  and  character  according  to  the  tribes 
to  which  the  islands  belong.  In  one  village  the  houses 
may  be  square,  in  another  round,  and  in  a  third,  perhaps, 
oblong  like  a  hayrick.  They  are  usually  built  upon  a 
framework  of  palm  trees,  and  most  of  them  have  little 
patches  of  taro  or  bananas  near  by.     The  walls  may  be  of 


A  home  in  the  Fijis. 


HOUSES   OF  GRASS,   CANE,   AND   LEAVES  39 

thin  wickervvork  beautifully  woven,  or  of  reeds  or  grasses 
so  sewn  or  tied  together  that  they  are  three  feet  in  thick- 
ness. The  reeds  are  sometimes  dyed  before  using,  and 
many  of  the  houses  have  walls  of  beautiful  patterns. 
Nearly  all  have  thatched  roofs,  and  in  some  the  roofs  ex- 
tend almost  to  the  ground. 

Most  of  the  grass  houses  are  exceedingly  small,  consist- 
ing of  but  one  room.  Those  of  the  rich  men  and  chiefs 
are  large,  ranging  in  length  up  to  fifty  feet  and  even  more. 
Some  of  them  have  heavy  ridge  roofs  which  extend  well 
out  beyond  their  basketwork  walls. 

These  island  homes  have  but  little  furniture,  although 
some  are  better  supplied  than  those  of  our  friends  in  Samoa. 
In  the  earthen  floors  of  the  Fiji  houses  there  are  raised 
places  where  the  guests  and  other  honored  persons  sleep 
upon  mats  or  beds  of  sweet-smelling  grass.  The  pillows 
are  of  wood,  so  cut  that  the  neck  just  fits  into  them.  The 
fire  holes  are  large  and  pots  and  pans  of  burnt  clay, 
wooden  bowls,  and  other  rude  kitchen  utensils  are  used. 

In  the  large  island  of  New  Guinea,  and  in  the  Solomons 
near  by,  are  savages  whose  homes  are  even  stranger  than 
those  we  have  seen.  Here  are  dwellings  high  up  in  the 
trees  in  order  that  the  owners  may  be  safe  from  their  ene- 
mies, some  of  whom  are  head-hunters  and  supposed  to  be 
cannibals.  The  tree  shelters  are  made  of  cane  and  palm 
leaves  and  are  reached  by  ladders  which  are  drawn  up  at 
night. 

When  we  first  took  possession  of  the  Philippines  our 
soldiers  found  tree  dwellers  in  southeastern  Mindanao. 
Their  thatched  huts  were  made  of  bamboo  and  grass,  and 
they  entered  them  by  climbing  notched  sticks  which  they 


40 


HOUSES   OF   GRASS,   CAXE,   AND   LEAVES 


pulled  up  after  dark.  Those  people  were  almost  naked, 
the  women  wearing  skirts  about  a  foot  long  and  the  men 
little  more  than  some  cloth  around  the  waist.  The  men 
had  bows  with  which  they  shot  poisoned  arrows. 


Moro  hut  upon  bamboo  poles. 

Many  of  the  Moros  of  the  Sulu  Islands  dwell  in  bamboo 
huts  built  upon  poles  above  the  water,  some  distance  out 
from  the  shore.  Their  houses  can  be  reached  only  by 
canoes  or  the  rude  wooden  bridges  which  in  some  cases 
connect  them  with  the  land.  Similar  houses  are  used  by 
the  Malays  in  the  Dutch  East  Indies. 

The  buildings  we  have  so  far  seen  have  each  been  the 
home  of  one  family.  In  some  of  these  far-away  regions 
are  dwellings  made  of  grass  and  cane,  so  large  that  they 


HOUSES    OF   GRASS,    CANE,    AND    LEAVES  4I 

house  many  persons.  Borneo  has  tribes  which  have  huts 
several  hundred  feet  long  and  sixty  feet  wide,  one  of  which 
may  contain  fifty  families.  Such  a  hut  consists  of  a  frame- 
work of  poles  covered  with  a  thatch  of  grass  or  of  the 
leaves  of  palm  trees.  A  hall  runs  through  the  center  of 
the  building,  and  this  is  faced  by  little  stalls  in  each  of 
which  dwells  a  family.  They  cook  in  the  stalls,  and  have 
their  homes  there,  sleeping  on  the  floor  with  no  bed  but 
some  mats. 

In  the  island  of  New  Guinea  are  villages  where  the  men 
dwell  in  clubhouses,  while  the  women  live  in  small  huts 
off  by  themselves.  The  women  do  the  cooking  at  the 
huts  and  bring  the  meals  to  their  black  lords  in  the  club- 
houses, within  which  they  are  not  allowed  to  come. 

But  suppose  we  look  further  into  the  homes  of  our 
Philippine  cousins.  We  shall  not  spend  our  time  with 
those  who  live  in  the  cities  or  towns,  for  the  houses  there 
are  large,  and  in  many  respects  not  unlike  our  dwellings 
at  home.  What  we  would  see  are  the  huts  and  houses  of 
cane,  thatched  with  palm  leaves,  which  serve  as  the  homes 
of  the  poor.  There  are  thousands  of  these  scattered  over 
the  country  in  villages,  or  on  the  outskirts  of  the  cities. 
Most  of  them  are  built  upon  posts  so  high  up  that  they 
have  to  be  entered  by  ladders  or  stairs.  In  parts  of  the 
tropics  it  is  unhealthy  to  sleep  near  the  ground  ;  and  be- 
sides, there  are  always  reptiles  and  insects  of  various  kinds 
which  must  be  kept  out. 

The  hou.ses  are  usually  built  close  together  and  those 
of  the  towns  near  the  shore  arc  shaded  by  coconut  palms. 
We  can  see  the  great  green  and  yellow  fruit  hanging  in 
bunches   high   over   the    roofs,    and   now   and   then   a   nut 


42  HOUSES   OF   GRASS,   CANE,   AND   LEAVES 

drops  to  the  ground.  There  are  banana  patches  near  many 
of  the  huts,  and  here  and  there  is  a  cluster  of  low  trees, 
whose  leaves  grow  to  a  length  of  ten  feet  or  more,  and  up 
to  two  feet  in  width.  That  is  the  nipa  palm,  which  fur- 
nishes much  of  the  roofing  of  this  part  of  the  world.  The 
leaves  are  cut  off  and  sewed  with  fibers  to  a  framework 
of  bamboo  poles  in  such  a  way  that  they  overlap  each 
other  like  shingles,  shedding  the  rain.  The  framework 
is  sometimes  made  on  the  ground,  and  the  leaves  sewed 
to  the  pole  or  rafters,  before  the  roof  is  raised  to  its  rest- 
ing place  on  the  wall.  The  walls  consist  of  a  framework 
covered  with  nipa  leaves,  sewed  the  same  way. 

In  nearly  every  village  we'  find  clumps  of  bamboo,  the 
great  canes  of  which  with  their  green  feathery  branches 
extend  high  over  the  houses.  These  canes  form  a  build- 
ing material  which  is  the  most  valuable  used  by  primitive 
people  throughout  the  tropics.  It  serves  as  the  rafters 
and  often  as  the  whole  framework  of  the  houses.  It  is 
of  the  same  character  as  the  cane  fishing  poles  sold  in  our 
country,  save  that  the  larger  bamboos  are  as  big  around 
as  one's  leg  and  as  tall  as  a  four  or  five  story  house.  The 
bamboo  is  split  and  pressed  out,  making  splints  which 
can  be  woven  like  basketwork,  and  thus  take  the  place  of 
wide  boards.  Walls  made  of  it  are  especially  suited  to  the 
tropics,  where  the  weather  is  warm  all  the  year  round,  and 
the  only  requirement  is  to  keep  out  the  rain.  The  woven 
splints  serve  also  for  doors,  and  the  holes  made  for  win- 
dows have  bamboo  shutters  which  can  be  raised  or  slid 
back  as  desired.  The  whole  canes  are  for  the  floors,  being 
laid  so  loosely  that  the  dust  and  dirt  fall  through  the  cracks 
and  little  sweeping  is  needed. 


SOME   ODD   DWELLINGS   OF   FAR-AWAY    LANDS  43 

Moreover,  by  cutting  out  the  knots  and  fitting  the  pieces 
together  the  bamboo  canes  form  spouting  and  piping;  and 
one  section  of  a  cane  with  a  fiber  handle  attached  makes 
a  good  bucket  for  water  or  milk.  Much  of  the  furniture 
of  the  tropics  is  made  of  this  wood,  and  it  has  other  uses 
of  various  kinds. 

As  we  go  on  farther  through  the  Phihppine  Islands,  we 
find  large  houses  made  of  bamboo,  and  also  of  board  walls 
with  roofs  of  thatch  or  tiles.  In  the  larger  dwelHngs  the 
windows  are  sometimes  of  thin  oyster  shells  set  in  a  lattice- 
work, and  those  near  the  cities  may  have  windows  of  glass. 
The  furniture  of  such  dwellings  is  simple  to  an  extreme, 
consisting  of  a  few  chairs  or  tables  and  a  bed  of  bamboo 
framework  with  a  netting  of  ropes  over  which  straw  mats 
are  stretched. 

5.     SOME   ODD    DWELLINGS    OE    FAR-AWAY 
LANDS 

WE  all  know  what  our  own  homes  are  like  and  we 
shall  learn  more  about  them  when  we  investigate 
the  materials  of  which  they  are  built.  We  shall  do  the 
same  as  to  the  homes  of  other  peoples  of  the  white  race, 
all  of  v.'hom  have  much  the  same  civilization.  There  are 
other  races,  however,  with  other  civilizations,  whose  homes 
are  vitally  different  from  ours,  some  of  whom  inhabit  great 
countries  and  have  much  to  do  with  the  work  of  the  world. 
This  is  especially  true  of  the  Japanese,  Chinese,  and  East 
Indians  who,  taken  together,  number  almost  one  half  of 
mankind. 

Suppose  we  make  a  trip  to  Japan.     We  are  in  a  country 


44 


SOME  ODD   DWELLINGS   OF  FAR-AWAY   LANDS 


of  many  islands  which  have  mountains  covered  with  for- 
ests. The  lowlands  and  the  valleys  are  cultivated  like 
gardens.  There  are  villages  at  every  few  miles,  while 
great  cities  are  to  be  found  here  and  there  near  the  sea. 
The  buildings  are  largely  of  wood  with  heavy  roofs  of 
black  tiles  or  of  thatch.  They  are  of  all  sizes,  from  the 
one-story  hut  of  two  or  three  rooms,  belonging  to  the  poor 
farmer,  to  the  great  structures  of  two  or  more  stories  which 
cover  a  large  area  and  have  many  apartments,  the  homes 
of  the  rich.  There  are  also  countless  temples  and  many- 
storied  pagodas. 


"  All  the  buildings  are  beautifully  made." 

All  the  buildings  are  beautifully  made.  The  Japanese 
are  skillful  mechanics  and  their  houses  are  as  delicately 
constructed  as  a  piece  of  fine  furniture.     The  roof  is  first 


SOME   ODD    DWELLINGS   OF    FAR-AWAY    LANDS 


45 


The  rooms  are  covered  with  straw  mats. 


built  upon  the  ground,  and  then  taken  apart  and  set  up  in 
its  place.  The  walls  are  of  wood  so  fitted  into  grooves 
that  they  can  be  slid  back  and  forth,  turning  several  rooms 
into  one.  In  many  of  the  houses  the  outer  walls  are  of 
boards  made  in  sections  so  that  they  can  be  taken  away 
during  the  daytime  and  the  whole  house  be  open.  The 
best  rooms  face  the  garden,  which  is  often  at  the  back  of 
the  house. 

Before  entering  the  homes  of  our  Japanese  friends  we 
take  off  our  shoes  and  leave  them  outside.  The  floors  are 
.so  polished  that  we  can  almost  see  ourselves  in  them. 
Most  of  them  are  carpeted  with  straw  mats  about  an  inch 
thick,  a  yard  wide,  and  two  yards  in  length ;  and  the  size 
of  each  room  is  known  by  the  number  of  mats  it  takes  to 


46 


SOME   ODD   DWELLINGS   OF   FAR-AWAY   LANDS 


cover  it.  These  mats  are  so  fine  and  white  that  no  one 
would  think  of  treading  upon  them  in  dirty  boots.  The 
Japanese  always  leave  their  shoes  outside  the  houses  and 
walk  about  in  bare  feet  or  in  the  mittenhke  stockings  they 
usually  wear.  They  sleep  on  the  floor,  and  at  their  meals 
sit  there  upon  cushions  before  tables  not  quite  a  foot  high. 
They  have  no  heavy  furniture,  such  as  large  tables  and 
chairs,  and  therefore  the  thick  mats  last  a  long  time. 

The  Japanese  have  many  big  buildings,  and  in  the  cities 
they  are  now  erecting  business  structures  like  ours. 
They  have  magnificent  temples  covering  acres,  and  the 
palaces  of  their  emperor  are  of  enormous  size. 

A  night's  ride  on  the  ferryboat  takes  us  across  Korea 
Strait  from  Japan  to  the  home  of  the  Koreans,  which  is 


The  Korean  house  is  often  of  the  shape  of  a  horseshoe.'' 


SOME   ODD    DWELLINGS    OF   FAR-AWAY    LANDS  47 

now  a  province  of  Japan.  It  is  a  land  of  big  hats  and 
long  gowns,  and  its  people  dwell  largely  in  houses  of  wood 
or  in  huts  of  stone  and  mud,  roofed  with  straw  thatch. 
The  Korean  house  is  often  of  the  shape  of  a  horseshoe, 
the  women's  quarters  being  put  at  the  back.  The  better 
buildings  are  not  unlike  the  Japanese.  Their  roofs  are 
heavy  and  the  interior  walls  are  of  wood  latticework 
backed  with  white  paper.  Some  of  the  Korean  walls  slide 
back  and  forth,  and  in  other  ways  their  dwellings  are 
similar  to  those  of  Japan.  They  are  not  so  well  built, 
however,  and  those  of  the  common  people  seem  mean  in 
comparison. 

Leaving  Korea  and  crossing  the  Yellow  Sea,  we  find 
ourselves  in  the  great  world  of  China,  comprising  about 
one  fourth  of  the  whole  human  race.  The  Chinese  are  so 
ingenious  that  many  of  the  great  inventions,  such  as  the 
compass,  gunpowder,  and  printing,  were  discovered  by 
them.  Their  history  dates  back  for  thousands  of  years, 
and  in  the  centuries  of  the  past  they  probably  dwelt  in 
better  homes  than  those  of  our  ancestors. 

The  Chinese  homes  of  to-day  are  by  no  means  so  com- 
fortable as  ours,  and  they  lack  many  of  the  things  we 
consider  necessities.  Those  of  the  very  poor  are  squalid 
to  an  extreme.  They  are  often  mud  huts  made  of  sun- 
dried  bricks,  or  of  clay  plastered  over  a  framework  of 
bamboo.  The  roofs  are  sometimes  of  thatch,  but  more 
often  of  clay  or  of  tiles.  The  better  houses  and  temples  are 
of  burnt  brick  of  a  bluish  gray  color  with  roofs  of  black  or 
gray  tiles.  They  are  usually  of  but  one  story,  although  in 
some  localities  two  and  three  story  houses  are  built.  They 
have  heavy  roofs  of  a  ridge  shape,  the  sides  of  which  are 


48 


SOME   ODD   DWELLINGS   OF   FAR-AWAY   LANDS 


"The  roofs  extend  out  beyond  the  walls  of  the  houses." 

often  curved.  The  roofs  extend  out  beyond  the  walls  of 
the  houses. 

Among  the  richer  Chinese,  each  family  has  a  number  of 
dwellings  inside  a  wall  surrounding  a  large  yard  known 
as  a  compound.  There  are  houses  for  the  servants,  houses 
for  guests,  and  houses  for  relatives,  in  addition  to  those  oc- 
cupied by  the  family  of  the  rich  man  himself.  The  build- 
ings have  windows  of  sliding  latticework  backed  with  white 
f  paper,  much  like  the  walls  we  saw  in  Japan.  Such  lattice- 
work is  sometimes  used  for  doors  as  well.  Glass  is  not 
common  in  the  ordinary  home  and  most  of  the  light  comes 
in  through  windows  of  paper. 

The  Chinese  have  more  furniture  than  the  people  of 
Japan.  Beds,  stools,  and  chairs  are  common,  and  there 
are  wide  wooden  benches  or  lounges  upon  which  they 
often  sit  or  lie  as  they  chat  with  each  other. 


SOME  ODD   DWELLINGS   OF   FAR-AWAY   LANDS 


49 


The  dwellings  of  the  Chinese  seldom  stand  alone.  The 
farmers  live  in  closely  built  villages,  and  in  the  towns  and 
cities  the  streets  are  so  narrow  that  it  would  be  impossible 
for  an  automobile  to  pass  through  them.  Hundreds  of 
the  cities  are  surrounded 
by  brick  walls  and  every 
large  town  has  a  wall  of 
some  kind.  These  walls 
are  of  vast  extent.  Those 
about  Peking  are  twenty 
miles  long  and  those  which 
surround  Nanking  even 
longer.  The  Peking  walls 
are  so  wide  that  two  motor 
cars  could  easily  pass  upon 
them  and  they  are  as  high 
as  a  four-story  house.  Such 
walls  were  originally  made 
for  defense  and  in  some  of 
the  more  progressive  cities, 
such  as  Tientsin,  they  have 
been  removed  and  the  space 
where  they  stood  is  covered 
with  buildings. 

Crossing  the  Himalaya 
Mountains  we  come  into 
India,  a  country  which  con- 
tains about  three  hundred 
million  people,  who,  al- 
though they  are  dark 
skinned,  have  features  like 

CARP.  HDLSES  —  4 


Chinese  pagoda. 


50  SOME   ODD   DWELLINGS   OF   FAR-AWAY   LANDS 

ours.  The  most  of  them  live  in  villages.  It  is  esti- 
mated that  there  are  more  than  five  hundred  thousand 
villages  in  the  country.  These  villages  are  composed  of 
mud  huts  v/ith  roofs  of  thatch  or  tiles.  They  have  no 
comforts  to  speak  of.  The  ordinary  dwelling  is  often  not 
more  than  fifteen  feet  square.  It  is  so  small  that  the 
family  moves  the  beds  outside  during  the  daytime.  The 
houses  have  no  chimneys.  The  cooking  is  done  on  the 
ground  or  in  rude  stoves  and  the  smoke  gets  out  as  it  can. 
The  chief  fuel  is  manure  and  earth  mixed  together  in  the 
form  of  cakes  which  are  plastered  on  the  walls  of  the  huts 
to  dry. 

Many  of  the  Indian  houses  have  separate  quarters  for 
women;  and  in  the  larger  ones  curtains  are  hung  across 
the  front  doors  to  keep  the  men  passing  by  from  seeing  the 
women  within.  Such  homes  have  but  little  furniture.  The 
people  sit  on  the  floor  at  their  meals,  and  the  ordinary  bed 
is  a  network  of  ropes  fastened  to  a  rude  frame  of  wood 
with  legs  less  than  one  foot  in  height.  Many  sleep  on  the 
floor,  or  on  the  ground  outside  their  huts. 

The  East  Indians  have  also  large  dwellings  with  bathing 
arrangements,  costly  rugs,  and  other  comforts.  The  rich 
live  in  great  luxury,  some  of  them  owning  palaces  of  sev- 
eral stories,  with  many  rooms  and  beautiful  gardens. 

In  such  homes  the  women  and  girls  have  apartments  of 
their  own  into  which  no  men  but  those  of  the  family  are 
permitted  to  come.  The  same  is  true  of  most  of  the 
dwellings  of  India,  Turkey,  and  Persia.  According  to 
their  religion  many  of  the  people  do  not  think  it  proper 
for  a  woman  to  be  seen  by  any'  other  men  than  her  hus- 
band,   and   her   brothers   and   sons.      Therefore   when    a 


SOME   ODD    DWELLINGS    OF   FAR-AWAY   LANDS  5 1 

Stranger  is  about  to  enter  a  house  he  makss  a  noise  to  let 
the  women  know  he  is  coming,  and  they  then  disappear. 
In  Persia,  for  instance,  no  gentleman  would  enter  the 
home  of  a  friend  without  first  stopping  on  the  doorstep, 
and  crying  out,  "  Women  away  !  " 

We  might  continue  our  travels  from  India  on  into 
Burma,  and  crossing  that  country  go  to  Siam.  In  Burma 
the  natives  live  in  houses  of  basketwork  raised  upon  piles. 
•The  roofs  are  often  a  thatch  of  grass  or  palm  leaves,  and 
the  dwellings  are  simple  and  easily  built.  In  the  low  and 
oft-flooded  lands  of  Siam  there  are  many  who  dwell  in 
houses  afloat  on  the  water.  This  is  especially  so  at  Bang- 
kok, where  thousands  of  men,  women,  and  children  have 
homes  of  one,  two,  or  more  rooms,  anchored  to  piles  driven 
down  into  the  Menam  River,  which  flows  through  that 
city.  Each  house  has  steps  by  which  one  can  go  down 
for  a  swim,  and  to  which  the  marketing  is  brought  in 
boats  every  morning.  The  children  play  about  in  canoes 
which  they  use  with  great  skill.  They  are  good  swimmers, 
and  they  must  be  so,  for  their  whole  lives  are  spent  within 
a  few  feet  of  the  water. 

In  some  of  the  rivers  of  China  there  are  people  who  live 
upon  boats.  There  are  floating  homes  built  upon  rafts  and 
in  some  of  these  the  children  play  about  with  little  wooden 
barrels  fastened  to  their  backs  in  order  that  they  may  be 
kept  afloat  should  they  fall  off  into  the  water. 

But  we  shall  find  it  impossible  to  visit  all  the  homes  of 
mankind.  They  vary  everywhere  with  the  civilization  and 
the  poverty  or  wealth  of  the  people.  They  differ  accord- 
ing to  the  building  materials  by  which  they  are  surrounded, 
and  also  as  to  the  climate,  the  rains,  the  heat,  and  the  cold. 


52  SOME   ODD    DWELLINGS   OF   FAR-AWAY   LANDS 


In  the  Norwegian  woods. 


Nearly  every  country  of  Europe  has  houses  unlike  those 
of  its  neighbors.  In  the  north  lands,  where  forests  are 
plentiful,  the  Norwegians  and  others  have  dwellings  of 
wood,  and  it  is  the  same  in  many  parts  of  the  Empire  of 


SOME   ODD    DWELLINGS   OF   FAR-AWAY   LANDS 


53 


Russia.  Farther  south,  where  the  trees  have  long  since 
been  cut  away,  most  of  the  homes  are  of  brick,  stone,  or 
clay.  High  up  among  the  snows  of  the  Alps  are  houses 
half  stone  and  half  wood,  and  there  are  some  which  have 


A   nome   ii.   :,'^;.iii';a.:/,':rn    huropc 


How  they  live  high  up  in  the  Alps. 


{b4) 


In   Spain. 


HOMES   OF   COLONIAL   DAYS  55 

Stones  on  their  roofs  to  hold  them  down  against  the  winds 
of  the  mountains.  In  Spain  many  of  the  houses  are  of 
stucco,  and  those  of  the  cities  have  iron  bars  over  the  win- 
dows behind  which  the  little  ones  play. 

There  is  no  nation  on  earth,  however,  which  has  such 
homelike  dwellings  as  ours,  and  we  shall  now  return  to  the 
United  States  to  see  something  of  them  and  the  materials 
from  which  they  are  built. 


oJ*{c 


6.     HOMES   OF   COLONIAL   DAYS 

OUR  homes  are  far  different  from  those  of  our  fore- 
fathers. When  the  Puritans  and  Cavaliers  crossed 
the  Atlantic  to  settle  in  the  New  World,  they  had  to  cut 
their  dwellings  out  of  the  woods.  There  were  no  saw- 
mills and  planing  mills  where  shingles  and  boards,  window 
sashes  and  doors,  and  all  sorts  of  wood  ready-made  to  be 
fitted  into  a  house,  could  be  bought.  There  were  no  hard- 
ware establishments  with  great  stores  of  nails,  screws, 
hinges,  and  locks  of  all  kinds.  There  were  no  brickyards 
or  stone  quarries  or  places  where  one  could  buy  lime, 
cement,  and  plaster.  The  whole  country  was  a  wilderness 
and  the  most  of  it  covered  with  trees  which  had  to  be 
chopped  down  before  it  could  be  turned  into  farms. 

Suppose  you  were  one  of  a  family  just  landed  on 
the  shore  of  a  land  of  this  kind  with  little  more  than  an 
ax,  a  saw,  and  a  hatchet  or  so ;  how  would  you  begin  to 
build  you  a  home.-'  You  would  first  look  about  for  some 
kind  of  shelter  in  which  to  stay  while  you  could  cut  down 
the  great  trees  and  erect  a  log  cabin. 


$6  HOMES   OF   COLONIAL   DAYS 

That  is  what  many  of  our  great-great-grandparents  did. 
They  huddled  together  in  caves  when  they  could  find 
them ;  or  dug  holes  into  the  sides  of  the  hills  and  made 
shelters  there  by  driving  in  poles  which  they  supported  by 
crotched  sticks  sunken  into  the  ground  at  right  angles. 
Upon  these,  as  a  framework,  branches  and  leaves  and  grass 
were  fastened,  making  rude  walls  and  a  roof,  which,  added 
to  the  earth  at  the  back  and  sides,  formed  their  first  homes. 

In  many  parts  of  the  colonies,  and  especially  in  the  south, 
they  built  wigwams  like  those  of  the  Indians,  using  mats, 
grass,  or  deerskins  to  cover  the  poles.  Farther  north 
they  had  wigwams  and  houses  of  bark.  Within  six  years 
after  the  Pilgrims  first  landed  on  Plymouth  Rock  and  began 
to  erect  their  log  huts,  there  were  only  thirty  dwellings  on 
the  island  of  Manhattan,  and  all  but  one  were  of  bark. 
These  rude  little  shelters  were  situated  on  the  lower  part 
of  the  island.  They  stood  on  the  very  places  which  are 
now  covered  with  steel  and  brick  office  buildings,  some  of 
which  are  thirty,  forty,  fifty,  and  even  more  stories  high. 

It  was  not  long  after  the  settlers  came  before  they  had 
their  log  houses  under  roof.  Every  man  was  his  own  car- 
penter, builder,  and  furniture  maker.  He  chopped  down 
the  trees  and  hewed  the  logs  into  lumber.  He  then  called 
upon  his  neighbors  to  aid  him  in  putting  the  structure  to- 
gether and  in  raising  the  framework  for  the  roof.  In  some 
places  the  walls  were  made  of  logs  from  fourteen  to  eight- 
een feet  long  set  perpendicularly  side  by  side  in  deep 
trenches,  running  around  a  square  which  formed  the  floor 
of  the  dwelHng.  The  earth  was  then  pounded  down,  and 
the  logs  fastened  together  with  wooden  pins  and  cross- 
pieces,  after  which  the  spaces  between  were  chinked  with 


HOMES   OF   COLONIAL   DAYS 


57 


mud.  Then  a  roof  of  hewn  boards  or  bark  shingles,  or  of 
a  framework  covered  with  thatch,  was  put  on,  and  the  main 
part  of  the  house  was  complete. 

In  such  cabins  the  logs  were  so  cut  as  to  leave  openings 
for  the  windows  and  doors.  The  windows  had  wooden 
shutters  with   hinges  of  withes  or  leather,  and  sometimes 


a  sash  with  panes  of  greased  paper.  The  doors  were  of 
boards  hewn  from  logs  fastened  to  crosspieces,  with 
wrr)ught  iron  nails  or  wooden  pins.  They  were  hung  upon 
hinges  of  vines  or  of  leather.  Sometimes  bark  doors  and 
shutters  were  used. 

The  furniture  consisted  of  a  rude  bed,  a  table,  and  some 
stools  or  chairs  of  rough  wood,  cut  out  of  the  trees.  The 
huts  made  of  fourtcen-fcKjt  logs  had  but  one  story.  Those 
of  logs  eighteen  feet  long  had  usually  a  loft  in  addition. 


58  HOMES   OF   COLONIAL   DAYS 

Many  of  the  cabins  of  that  time  were  of  logs  notched 
near  the  ends  and  laid  horizontally  one  upon  the  others, 
crossing  at  right  angles  and  forming  an  oblong  or  square 
room.  Such  logs  were  added,  layer  by  layer,  until  the 
house  was  of  the  desired  height,  when  the  framework  for 
the  roof  was  raised  into  place.  This  was  then  covered  with 
thatch,  clapboards,  or  split  shingles.  Some  of  the  logs 
were  cut  shorter  to  fit  into  the  places  where  the  openings 
for  such  windows  and  doors  as  have  been  already  described 
were  to  be. 

The  house  was  then  made  tight,  by  chinking  or  filling  in 
all  the  holes  and  spaces  between  the  logs  with  mud  and 
broken  stones  and  by  plastering  the  spaces  with  clay. 
The  floor  was  the  earth  well  pounded  down ;  or,  in  the 
better  cabins,  it  was  of  split  or  hewed  logs  called  puncheons. 
A  large  fireplace  was  built  in  one  end  of  the  cabin,  and 
this  formed  a  part  of  the  great  chimney  of  earth  and 
sticks,  or  of  earth  and  stones  laid  up  on  the  outside  of  the 
wall. 

Such  houses  seem  rude  to  us  now,  but  they  were  the 
first  permanent  dwellings  of  thousands  in  colonial  times. 
They  were  the  homes  of  the  earliest  settlers,  and  as  the 
pioneers  chopped  their  way  through  the  woods  towards 
the  Mississippi  Valley  each  settler  erected  his  log  home, 
and,  cutting  down  the  forest  about  it,  broke  the  land  for 
his  farm.  Many  such  cabins  are  still  to  be  found  in  the 
mountains  and  in  the  wilder  woodlands  of  our  country. 

It  was  in  houses  like  these  that  some  of  the  most 
eminent  men  of  our  history  were  born,  and  to-day  we  have 
people  living  in  palaces  whose  fathers  or  grandfathers 
were  born  in  log  cabins,  and,  as  babies,  were  rocked  in 


HOMES   OF   COLONIAL   DAYS  59 

sugar  troughs.  The  sugar  trough  was  a  short  section  of 
a  big  log  spHt  in  two,  and  so  hollowed  out  that  it  could  be 
used  to  catch  the  sap  from  the  maple  trees.  In  those 
days  cans  and  buckets  were  scarce,  and  such  troughs 
took  their  places.  A  trough  was  just  about  big  enough  to 
hold  the  baby,  and  it  often  formed  the  rocking  and  sleep- 
ing place  instead  of  a  cradle. 

Captain  Miles  Standish  lived  in  a  log  house,  and  the 
same  is  true  of  Captain  John  Smith  and  the  other  colonists 
who  founded  Jamestown.  Not  far  from  Berryville,  Vir- 
ginia, I  was  once  shown  a  log  hut  in  which  George  Wash- 
ington dwelt  when  a  boy  of  sixteen.  He  was  then  em- 
ployed in  surveying  a  great  tract  of  land  belonging  to  Lord 
Fairfax  who  paid  him  five  dollars  a  day,  and  he  used 
this  hut  as  his  home.  It  was  not  more  than  twelve  feet 
square,  and  of  about  the  same  height,  having  a  ridge  roof 
covered  with  clapboards.  The  logs  which  formed  the 
walls  had  been  chopped  square,  and  their  ends  so  dove- 
tailed into  the  corners  that  but  few  nails  were  needed. 
The  cabin  had  two  rooms,  one  above  the  other.  It  was 
entered  by  a  door  of  hewed  planks.  There  were  no  stairs, 
and  the  young  surveyor  who  afterwards  became  the  great 
General  and  President  had  to  stand  upon  a  stool  or  climb 
a  ladder  to  reach  his  rude  sleeping  apartment. 

Presidents  Lincoln  and  Garfield  were  born  in  log 
cabins.  When  Abraham  Lincoln  was  eight  years  old  his 
father  moved  from  Kentucky  to  .Indiana.  The  family 
traveled  on  horseback,  sleeping  at  night  under  the  trees. 
When  they  reached  the  site  of  their  future  home,  they 
put  up  a  shed  of  logs  and  branches,  inclosed  on  three 
sides,  the  fourth  bjing  open;  and  in  this  they  lived  for  a 


6o 


HOMES   OF  COLONIAL   DAYS 


Log  cabin  where  Lincoln  was  born. 


year.     By  that  time  Abraham's   father  had  built   a   log 
house  about   eighteen   feet   square.     The  rude  structure 

had  but  one  room, 
and  little  Abe's 
sleeping  place  was 
made  by  fitting  some 
slabs  into  the  logs 
overhead,  making  a 
half  loft  which  was 
reached  by  a  ladder. 
The  floor  was  the 
hard-beaten  ground ; 
and  a  bedstead,  a 
table,  and  four  stools, 
all  hewed  out  of  trees,  formed  the  only  furniture.  There 
was  a  wide  fireplace,  and,  at  the  light  of  this,  little  Abraham 
Lincoln  studied  his  lessons  at  night. 

Garfield's  log  cabin  home,  built  by  his  father,  Abram 
Garfield,  was  in  northern  Ohio,  near  a  tract  of  forest  not 
far  from  Lake  Erie.  The  nearest  house  was  seven  miles 
away.  It  was  built  of  rough  logs  to  which  the  bark  and  moss 
still  clung.  The  roof  was  of  pine  slabs,  and  the  walls  were 
of  logs  so  notched  at  the  corners  that  they  fitted  quite 
close  together,  the  spaces  between  them  being  filled  up  or 
chinked  with  clay.  The  house  had  a  floor  made  of  split 
logs  hewn  smooth  with  an  ax ;  and  its  doors  were  of 
planks  hung  upon  wrought  iron  hinges.  The  lock  was  a 
wooden  bar  which  rose  and  fell  in  a  wooden  socket,  as  a 
leather  string  which  ran  through  a  hole  in  the  door  was 
pulled  or  let  go.  At  night  the  string  was  drawn  into 
the   house  and   only  those  within   could   open  the  door. 


HOMES   OF   COLONIAL   DAYS 


6l 


This  string  was  called  the  latchstring,  and  from  this  custom 
has  come  the  expression  denoting  hospitality,  "  The  latch- 
string is  always  out  for  you." 

In  colonial  times  many  of  the  schoolhouses  were  made  of 
logs,  and  in  some  the  only  desks  were  boards  resting  on 
pegs  driven  at  the  right  height  into  the  logs  of  the  walls 
with  benches  before  them.  The  teacher's  seat  was  in  the 
center  of  the  room  and  the  older  scholars  sat  at  these' 
desks  facing  the  walls  with  their  backs  to  the  teacher. 
The  younger  scholars  sat  on  blocks  or  benches  of  logs  be- 
tween the  desks  and  the  teacher.     Such  schoolrooms  were 


Schoolhouse  of  colonial  times. 


frequently  lighted  by  panes  of  white  paper  greased  with 
lard,  and  fastened  to  sashes  which  fitted  into  the  walls. 
The  heat  came  from  great  fireplaces,  the  fuel  being  sent  in 
by  the  parents  as  part  pay  for  the  teaching.     It  is  said  that 


62 


HOMES   OF   COLONIAL    DAYS 


the  child  whose  parent  did  not  send  his  wood  in  on 
time  was  often  forced  to  sit  in  the  coldest  part  of  the 
schoolroom. 

As  our  country  developed,  the  homes  of  the  colonists 
began  to  improve.  The  cabins  became  larger.  The  logs 
were  more  smoothly  hewed  and  there  were  many  two-story 
dwellings  By  and  by  buildings  of  clapboards  or  hewn 
slabs  were  constructed.  Then  sawmills  were  erected,  and 
boards  came  into  use.  In  Virginia,  Pennsylvania,  New 
York,  and  New  England,  the  people  soon  began  to  build 
dwellings  of  stone.  The  first  bricks  were  sent  across  the 
Atlantic  Ocean  from  Europe.  They  were  burned  bricks  of 
red  and  black,  and  were  laid  in  a  checkerboard  fashion. 
The  windows  were  made  of  tiny  glass  panes  which  were 
also  imported.     Many  of  these  houses  still  stand. 

As  the  people  made  more  money  their  homes  grew 
better  and  better,  and  among  them  were  large  and  com- 
fortable mansions,  such  as   Arlington,  owned  by  Martha 


Mount  Vernon,  the  home  of  Washington. 


HOMES   OF   COLONIAL   DAYS 


63 


Custis,  who  married 
George  Washington, 
and  Mount  Vernon, 
where  they  lived 
after  marriage.  The 
home  of  General 
Washington  is  pre- 
served to-day,  and  it 
looks  much  as  it  did 
when  he  died.  Ar- 
lington, which  for  a 
lono:   time  was   the 


Arlington,  the  home  of  General  Lee. 


dwelling  of  General  Robert  E.  Lee,  now  belongs  to  our 
government.  It  is  a  beautiful  building,  with  many  large 
rooms,  and  must  have  been  a  most  comfortable  home. 
The  ground  forms  the  site  of  Arlington  Cemetery,  which 
is  situated  on  the  hills  facing  the  Potomac,  opposite  our 
National  Capital. 

At  the  time  of  our  Revolutionary  War,  New  York,  Phil- 
adelphia, and  Boston  had  what  were  then  considered  mag- 
nificent mansions,  and  soon  after  that  many  other  fine 
houses  were  built.  Great  public  buildings  of  stone,  such  as 
our  National  Capitol  and  the  White  House,  were  erected, 
and  other  large  structures  of  many  kinds  were  put  up  in 
various  places.  As  the  country  increased  in  wealth  and 
population,  the  business  and  official  buildings  grew  better 
and  better.  This  has  been  also  the  case  with  the  dwell- 
ings of  the  poor  and  well-to-do,  as  well  as  with  those  of 
the  rich  ;  so  that  to-day  it  is  safe  to  say  that  we  have 
the  most  beautiful,  the  most  substantial,  and  the  most  com- 
fortable homes  known  to  man. 


64  IN  THE   WORLD'S   GREAT   FORESTS 

7.     IN   THE   WORLD'S   GREAT   FORESTS 

OUR  travels  to-day  are  to  be  in  the  forests.  We  all 
know  that  wood  has  a  large  part  in  making  our 
homes  and  we  wish  to  see  some  of  the  places  from  which 
it  comes.  When  the  earth  was  first  peopled  much  of  it  was 
covered  with  trees.  There  were  forests  wherever  the 
climate  and  rainfall  were  just  right,  and  that  was  usually 
along  or  near  great  bodies  of  water.  There  were  dense 
woods  everywhere  along  the  banks  of  the  rivers,  and  upon 
the  moist  plains,  and  in  the  valleys  and  on  the  slopes  of 
the  mountains  where  the  water-laden  winds  from  the  ocean 
blew  against  the  cold  air  of  the  hills  and  dropped  their 
burden  of  moisture.  Almost  the  whole  of  Europe  and  a 
great  part  of  North  America  had  just  these  conditions, 
and  they  were  therefore  covered  with  woods.  The  same 
was  true  of  many  parts  of  Asia,  and  of  much  of  northern 
Africa  which  is  now  bare  of  trees.  But  man  needed  shel- 
ter and  fuel,  and  also  cleared  land  on  which  to  grow  crops. 
He  has  continued  cutting  away  the  forests  to  supply  these 
needs  and  for  this  reason  vast  areas  of  the  original  woods 
have  long  since  disappeared. 

Nevertheless,  there  is  much  woodland  left.  We  find 
some  along  nearly  all  the  great  rivers,  with  the  exception 
of  the  lower  parts  of  the  Nile  and  the  Ganges.  The  for- 
ests of  the  Kongo  in  Africa  are  so  dense  that  their  shade 
turns  the  tropical  noonday  to  twilight;  and  this  is  also  the 
case  in  the  vast  basins  of  the  Amazon  and  the  Parana 
in  South  America.  Much  of  our  Mississippi  Valley  is  still 
wooded,  and  the  Columbia  River  flows  through  some  of 
the  most  magnificent  forests  on  earth. 


VM       I^.nifilude  We«t 


Greciiwii'li      8(1 


(65) 


66  IN  THE   WORLD'S  GREAT   FORESTS 

If  we  could  take  an  airship  and  make  a  rapid  journey 
over  the  forest  lands  of  the  globe,  we  should  find  that 
most  of  them  stand  upon  this  northern  hemisphere  upon 
which  we  live,  and  that  the  most  and  best  of  the  timber 
fitted  for  houses  is  scattered  through  the  countries  run- 
ning around  the  northern  part  of  this  hemisphere.  These 
countries  are  Russia,  Norway  and  Sweden,  Germany  and 
,  France  and  Austria-Hungary  in  Europe,  Siberia  in  Asia, 
and  British  America  and  the  United  States  in  our  own 
grand  division. 

It  is  true  that  Africa,  South  America,  and  Australia  have 
also  large  forests ;  but  the  woods  of  those  countries  are 
usually  so  heavy  that  they  will  not  float,  and  the  difficulty 
of  getting  them  to  the  markets  is  such  that  they  have  but 
little  part  in  the  world's  building  materials.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  woods  of  the  northern  hemisphere  are  of  such  a 
nature  that  the  logs  can  be  floated  to  the  sawmills  or  to 
the  places  where  the  lumber  is  most  in  demand.  More- 
over, the  climates  are  such  that  the  snow  can  often  be  used 
in  dragging  the  logs  to  the  streams. 

But  let  us  suppose  that  we  are  soaring  over  Europe  in 
our  airship.  We  shall  imagine  that  we  have  our  field 
glasses  glued  to  our  eyes,  and  that  they  are  so  strong  that 
we  can  take  bird's-eye  views  of  almost  the  whole  continent. 
There  are  woodlands  in  all  parts  of  it.  Europe  has,  it  is 
estimated,  more  than  seven  hundred  and  fifty  milHon  acres 
of  timber,  and  this  comprises  about  one  third  of  its  terri- 
tory. The  thickest  woods  are  in  Russia,  in  the  northern 
part  of  which  are  vast  forests  that  have  never  been  touched 
by  the  ax.  The  same  is  true  of  Finland  and  of  Sweden 
and    Norway.     Germany,    France,    and   Austria-Hungary 


IN  THE   WORLD'S   GREAT   FORESTS  6^ 

have  also  large  tracts  of  valuable  trees  which  have  grown 
up  within  the  past  few  generations,  and  their  governments 
are  always  setting  out  more.  There  are  tree  nurseries  in 
almost  every  country ;  for  the  people  of  the  Old  World 
have  come  to  realize  the  value  of  forests,  and  they  are 
taking  good  care  of  the  woods  they  have  left. 

Every  country  has  national  forests  of  great  extent,  and 
the  waste  lands  belonging  to  the  state  are  being  set  out 
with  new  trees.  The  lumbering  is  so  carried  on  that  only 
the  full  grown  or  ripe  trees  are  cut,  and  nothing  is  wasted. 
The  same  methods  are  used  in  the  private  forests,  and  as  a 
result  in  some  of  these  countries  the  supply  of  timber  is 
increasing  from  year  to  year.  It  is  different  in  the  United 
States,  where,  although  we  have  large  areas  of  national 
forests,  we  are  destroying  our  other  woodlands  in  the 
most  wasteful  way.  But  we  shall  see  more  of  this  as  we 
go  over  the  country. 

Now  we  have  left  Europe  and  crossed  the  Atlantic.  We 
are  taking  a  bird's-eye  view  of  North  America.  Our  con- 
tinent still  has  more  and  better  timber  than  any  other  part 
of  the  world.  The  forest  area  of  Canada  is  greater  than 
the  woodlands  of  all  Europe,  and  the  timber  left  in  the 
United  States  is  even  more  valuable.  The  forests  of  Can- 
ada begin  in  Nova  Scotia  and  New  Brunswick  on  the  At- 
lantic and  stretch  from  there  clear  to  the  Pacific,  a  distance 
of  more  than  three  thousand  miles.  This  long  belt  of  woods 
is  in  places  about  two  hundred  miles  wide;  and  fully  one 
fourth  of  it  contains  timber  that  will  make  homes  for 
men.  North  of  our  Great  Lakes  are  vast  regions  covered 
with  pines,  and  in  British  Columbia  are  to  be  found  some 
of  the  finest  trees  of  the  world. 


6S  IN  THE   WORLD'S   GREAT   FORESTS 

But  of  all  the  forest  regions  on  earth  the  most  in- 
teresting to  us  are  those  of  the  United  States.  Moreover, 
they  are  of  all  the  world  still  the  most  valuable,  although 
the  greater  part  of  the  trees  which  once  covered  our  coun- 
try have  been  burned  and  otherwise  destroyed  in  clearing 
the  lands  to  make  farms.  At  the  time  the  Puritans  came 
to  New  England  and  Captain  John  Smith  and  his  colonists 
to  Virginia,  there  was  a  vast  stretch  of  woods  which  began 
at  the  Atlantic  Ocean  and  extended  westward  to  the  Mis- 
sissippi River,  with  the  exception  of  a  part  of  ihe  plains  of 
IlHnois.  West  of  the  Mississippi  this  forest  covered  the 
most  of  Missouri,  Arkansas,  Louisiana,  and  a  great  part  of 
Texas  and  Oklahoma;  and  in  addition  there  were  extensive 
woodlands  in  the  Rocky  Mountains  and  along  the  Pacific 
Ocean. 

The  forests  of  that  time  taken  together  covered  almost 
one  half  of  the  land  on  the  main  body  of  the  United  States. 
Our  government  experts  have  estimated  that  they  contained 
so  much  good  wood  for  building  that  cut  into  lumber  it 
would  have  equaled  fifty-two  hundred  billion  feet  of  boards 
one  foot  wide  and  one  inch  in  thickness.  This  amount  is 
beyond  our  comprehension.  But  if  for  easy  figuring  we 
take  fifty-two  hundred  feet  instead  of  fifty-two  hundred  and 
eighty  feet  as  the  length  of  one  mile,  and  divide  the  fifty- 
two  hundred  billion  by  that,  the  result  is  one  billion,  showing 
that  there  was  lumber  enough  to  make  a  board  walk,  a  foot 
wide,  one  billion  miles  long.  Now  the  distance  from  the 
earth  to  the  sun  is  ninety-three  million  miles  and  to  the 
moon  two  hundred  and  forty  thousand  miles.  If  we  could 
bridge  air  and  space,  our  lumber  would  have  been  sufili- 
cient  to  cover  a  street   ten  feet  wide  reaching  from  the 


il>,,) 


70 


IN  THE   WORLD'S   GREAT   FORESTS 


earth  to  the  sun.     That  would  have  taken  nine 
hundred  and  thirty   milHon  miles  of  lumber 
and  left  something  like  seventy  million  miles  to 
spare.      The  remainder  would  have  paved  a 
road  more  than  two  hundred  and  ninety-one 
feet  wide  all  the  way  to  the  moon,  and  had 
we  nailed  it  down,  covering  sea  and  land, 
around  our  little  earth  at  the  Equator, 
have  made  a  board  belt  twenty  thou 
wide  or  of  a  width  of  three  and  a 
with     many     millions     of     boards 
sawed    into     flooring,    it    would 
enough  boards  to  have  covered 
England  with  the  addition  of 
Jersey,   Pennsylvania,  Dela- 

Of  these  vast  woodlands 
haps  was  the  Northern 
Maine  throuo^h  New        .  ,-., 


Vy^ 


i 


York  and  the  most 
central  and  north- 
sin  to  Minnesota, 


# 


it    would 

sand    feet 

half    miles, 

to    spare.      If 

have    furnished 

the  whole  of  New 

New     York,     New 

ware,  and   Maryland. 

the  most  valuable  per- 

forest,  which    ran    from 

England,      across       New 

of    Pennsylvania,   through 


4p 

lachian  Moun-        k'M/ 


1^      ern    Michigan   and    Wiscon- 


Georgia, 
covered    an 
state      of 


•^j 


rv 


extending    along    the    Appa- 
tains     as     far     southward     as 
Roughly     speaking,    this    forest 
area  about    six   times  that  of  the 


<^^/ 

N^y 


Virginia  or  Kentucky.  In  it  there 
were  many  cone-bearing  trees.  It 
was  the  home  of  the  white  pine, 
which  was  mixed  with  red  pine,  spruce, 
hemlock,  cedar,  and  fir,  as  well  as  birch, 
cherry,  maple,  and  some  other  hard 
woods.      The    total    amount    of   timber 


IN   THE   WORLD'S   GREAT    FORESTS  7 1 

in  that  forest  was  perhaps  one  bilUon  feet  board  measure, 
a  board  foot  being  one  foot  long,  one  foot  wide,  and  one 
inch  thick. 

Another  extensive  wooded  tract  of  the  East  was  the 
Southern  forest.  This  began  in  southern  New  Jersey  and 
covered  all  our  South  Atlantic  and  Gulf  states,  as  well  as 
parts  of  Texas,  Arkansas,  and  Oklahoma.  It  contained 
many  pines,  of  which  the  yellow  pine  was  the  most  nu- 
merous. It  covered  more  than  two  hundred  million  acres, 
and.  had  as  much  timber  as  the  Northern  forest. 

Between  these  two  was  the  Central  forest,  which  ex- 
tended from  the  Atlantic  to  the  great  western  plain.  It 
was  composed  chiefly  of  hard  woods,  and  before  the  clear- 
ing began  comprised  about  two  hundred  and  eighty  mil- 
lion acres  and  contained  more  than  fourteen  billion  board 
feet  of  standing  saw  timbers.  This  timber  was  walnut, 
oak,  elm,  hickory,  maple,  chestnut,  sycamore,  red  gum, 
and  ash,  as  well  as  basswood,  cottonwood,  and  some 
other  trees. 

The  forests  of  the  Rocky  Mountains  were  situated  on 
the  higher  plateaus  and  slopes.  They  were  almost  entirely 
pine  and  contained  less  than  half  the  amount  of  timber 
that  stood  in  either  the  northern  or  the  southern  portions. 
The  original  extent  was  not  over  one  hundred  and  ten 
million  acres. 

The  Pacific  Coast  forest  was  less  in  area  than  any  of 
these  others.  It  was  thickly  timbered  and  the  trees  were 
so  tall  that  it  surpassed  in  the  amount  of  the  good  tim- 
ber then  standing  any  of  the  other  forest  regions,  except- 
ing the  hard  wood  forest  of  the  central  belt.  This  forest 
extended  through  the  greater  part  of   California,  and  of 


72  IN  THE   WORLD'S   GREAT   FORESTS 

Washington  and  Oregon.  It  was  composed  almost  alto- 
gether of  trees  bearing  cones,  consisting  chiefly  of  Douglas 
fir  and  redwoods,  many  of  which  were  two  hundred  or 
more  feet  in  height  and  of  enormous  thickness.  In  addi- 
tion to  these  there  were  vast  quantities  of  fine  yellow  pines, 
red  cedars,  sugar  pines,  and  other  firs  and  spruces. 

Such  were  the  woods  which  we  had  in  our  country  when 
it  came  into  our  hands.  Of  this  vast  treasure  more  than 
one  half  has  already  disappeared.  By  cutting,  clearing, 
and  forest  fires  the  area  of  the  woods  has  been  so  reduced 
that  it  does  not  now  amount  to  much  more  than  one  fifth 
of  the  United  States  proper ;  and  instead  of  our  having 
fifty-two  hundred  billion  feet  of  lumber  still  standing  we 
have  not  half  that  amount.  Much  less  than  one  third  of 
the  Northern  forest  remains.  More  than  one  half  of  the 
Southern  forest  has  been  cut  away,  and  of  the  Central 
forest,  we  have  not  one  fifth  as  much  as  we  had  when  the 
country  came  into  our  hands. 

The  woods  of  the  Rocky  Mountain  region  are  in  a  better 
condition.  We  have  from  one  half  to  three  fourths  of 
them  left,  while  in  the  Pacific  Coast  forests  a  much  greater 
proportion  of  the  trees  are  still  standing,  so  that  all  to- 
gether our  forests  are  still  exceedingly  valuable. 

Nevertheless,  it  is  sad  to  think  of  the  vast  amount  of 
good  timber  which  has  been  wasted  through  fires  and  bad 
lumbering.  Of  late  years  the  National  Bureau  of  Forestry 
has  done  much  to  remedy  these  evils.  Under  its  direction 
woodlands  are  being  set  out  in  most  of  the  states,  the 
national  forests  are  being  carefully  preserved,  and  the  trees 
are  so  cut  that  the  ripe  timber  is  turned  into  lumber,  while 
the  younger  trees  are  left  to  grow  for  the  future. 


OUR   LOGGING   INDUSTRY  73 


8.    OUR   LOGGING   INDUSTRY 

"This  is  the  forest  primeval.     The  murmuring  pines  and  the  hemlocks, 
Bearded  with  moss,  and  in  garments  green,  indistinct  in  the  twilight, 
Stand  like  Druids  of  eld,  with  voices  sad  and  prophetic. 
Stand  like  harpers  hoar,  with  beards  that  rest  on  their  bosoms." 

WE  have  crossed  our  wide  continent,  and  are  now  on 
the  western  slope  of  the  Cascade  Mountains  in 
the  state  of  Washington,  in  one  of  the  most  densely  wooded 
regions  of  the  Pacific  Northwest.  Mighty  fir  trees,  some 
as  thick  as  the  Pullman  cars  in  which  we  crossed  the 
Rockies,  rise  to  a  height  of  two  or  three  hundred  feet  on 
all  sides  of  us.  Their  green  branches  begin  at  one  hundred 
or  more  feet  from  the  ground,  and  they  are  so  thick  that 
they  interlock  and  shut  out  the  sun.  The  great  trunks 
stand  about  like  mighty  columns,  and  we  seem  to  be  in  a 
vast  cathedral  which  reaches  on  and  on  as  far  as  we  can 
see,  reminding  us  of  one  of  Bryant's  Forest  Hymns :  — ■ 

"  The  groves  were  God's  first  temples.     Ere  man  learned 
To  hew  the  shaft,  and  lay  the  architrave, 
And  spread  the  roof  above  them,  — ere  he  framed 
The  lofty  vault,  to  gather  and  roll  back 
The  sound  of  anthems  ;  in  the  darkling  wood, 
Amidst  the  cool  and  silence,  he  knelt  down 
And  offered  to  the  Mightiest  solemn  thanks 
And  supplication/' 

The  sounds  about  us,  however,  are  far  different  from 
those  of  a  church.  We  are  in  the  heart  of  a  lumber  camp, 
with  hundreds  of  men  sawing  and  chopping  away  on  all 
sides.  Not  far  from  where  we  are  standing  is  a  stationary 
steam  engine,  which  puffs  and  blows  as  it  drags  the  mighty 


74 


OUR    LOGGING    INDUSTRY 


•  This  is  the  forest  primeval." 


logs  with  steel  ropes  to  the  cars  and  with  similar  ropes 
loads  them  for  shipment  to  the  mills. 

In   order   to   see   the   better  we  have  climbed  upon    a 


OUR   LOGGING   INDUSTRY 


75 


great  fir  which  has  just  fallen.  It  is  two  hundred  feet 
long,  and  so  thick  that  a  cross  section  of  it  would  reach 
from  the  floor  to  the  ceihng  of  the  largest  schoolroom. 
Other  fir  trees  are  still  standing,  the  tops  of  some  of  them 
piercing  the  sky  three  hundred  feet  over  our  heads.  Ex- 
cept where  the  lumbermen  have  cut  their  way  through,  the 


In  the  Oregon  woods. 


jungle  is  almost  as  dense  as  that  of  the  Himalaya  Moun- 
tains. The  ground  is  covered  with  rotting  underbrush. 
There  are  fallen  trees  and  broken  branches  everywhere, 
and  the  older  trunks  have  a  thick  coating  of  moss.  There 
are  giant  ferns,  and  brambles  with  sharp  thorns  which 
tear  one's  hands  and  clothes  as  he  makes  his  way  through. 
Not  far  from  where  we  are  the  lumbermen  are  felling  a 


76 


OUR  LOGGING   INDUSTRY 


great  Douglas  fir.  They  have  made  cuts  on  the  opposite 
sides  of  its  trunk  five  feet  from  the  ground  and  into  these 
have  fitted  two  springboards,  upon  each  of  which  one  of 
them  stands.  They  are  making  a  notch  in  the  tree  which 
will  give  it  the  right  direction  for  falling;  Their  axes 
swing  alternately,  and  each  cut  brings  a  great  chip  to  the 
ground.     By  and  by  the  gash  in  the  trunk  is  so  large  that 


Big  tree  of  California  with  a  company  of  soldiers  on  it. 

a  man  could  lie  down  inside  it,  and  this  gash  determines 
the  direction  in  which  the  tree  will  drop  when  the  saw 
has  cut  its  way  through. 

A  little  farther  over  we  see  another  tree  already  notched, 
at  which  the  lumbermen  are  cutting  their  way  through 
the  trunk.  This  is  done  by  a  cross-cut  saw  six  feet  in 
length,  with  a  man  at  each  end.     The  work  begins  at  the 


OUR   LOGGING   INDUSTRY  77 

opposite  side  from  the  gash.  The  saw  cuts  like  velvet  as 
it  eats  its  way  through  the  soft  bark.  Now  it  strikes  the 
wood,  and  the  tree  seems  to  shriek  as  the  cruel  teeth  plow 
their  way  to  its  heart.  That  mighty  giant  has  been  hun- 
dreds of  years  in  its  growth.  It  came  through  the  soil 
more  than  a  century  before  Columbus  discovered  America, 
and  it  was  one  hundred  feet  high  when  our  ancestors  built 
their  first  log  huts  on  this  continent.  Nevertheless,  these 
men  will  cut  it  down  in  less  than  an  hour,  and  within  a  few 
days  it  will  be  on  its  way  over  the  world  to  make  homes 
for  man. 

As  soon  as  the  tree  comes  to  the  ground  other  men 
take  charge  of  it.  They  trim  off  the  great  branches  and 
measure  it,  cutting  gashes  upon  it  twenty,  thirty,  and 
sometimes  forty  feet  apart,  at  which  places  a  third  set  of 
men  saw  it  into  logs. 

Each  log  is  now  wrapped  around  with  a  steel  rope,  joined 
to  the  engine,  and  by  this  means  is  dragged  over  the 
ground  to  the  railroad  which  has  been  built  to  take  the 
logs  out  of  the  woods.  Many  of  the  logs  are  so  heavy 
that  they  plow  up  the  earth  and  sometimes  tear  up  smaller 
trees  by  the  roots  on  the  way.  A  single  forty  foot  log 
from  one  of  the  larger  trees  is  a  full  load  for  one  car, 
containing  enough  wood  to  make  five  thousand  feet  of 
good  lumber.  Some  of  the  logs  when  green  will  weigh 
from  twenty  to  forty  tons,  but  tlie  steel  cable,  moved  by  the 
engine,  drags  them  through  the  woods  to  the  track,  each 
log  looking  like  a  huge  live  worm  which  sways  its  head 
this  way  and  that  as  it  goes. 

As  the  log  reaches  the  railroad,  it  is  raised  by  another 
cable  with  heavy  hooks  on  the  ends.     This  passes  through 


78 


OUR  LOGGING   INDUSTRY 


a  block  suspended  above  the  car.  The  hooks  are  fastened 
into  the  log,  and  as  the  engine  is  started  it  reels  up  the 
cable,  dragging  or  raising  the  log  to  the  car. 


Trainload  of  logs. 

In  some  of  the  lumber  camps  the  steam  engines  move 
the  logs  to  the  streams,  where  they  are  rafted  to  the  mar- 
kets or  to  the  railroads ;  and  in  other  parts  of  the  North- 
west they  are  carried  to  the  sawmills,  from  where  the 
lumber  sometimes  floats  down  the  mountain  in  great  flumes 
or  troughs  of  boards  into  which  streams  have  been  run. 
In  California,  in  the  heart  of  the  Sierra  Nevada,  is  a  mill 
which  has  a  flume  sixty  miles  long.  The  lumber  is  thrown 
into  this  and  it  goes  flying  down  to  the  trains  and  the 
market. 

In  many  parts  of  the  Cascades  the  logs  are  sawed  not 
far  from  where  they  are  cut  and  the  lumber  is  carried  on 
the  railroads  to  the  cities.  In  other  regions  the  logs  are 
floated  down  the  Columbia,  and  from  some  places  they  go 


OUR   LOGGING   INDUSTRY 


79 


into  Puget  Sound  and  are  thence  rafted  to  the  great  mills  on 
its  shores.  Some  rafts  are  so  built  that  they  can  be  towed 
by  steamers  from  Puget  Sound  down  to  San  Francisco  and 
other  ports ;  and  on  the  Columbia  River  are  similar  rafts 
which  are  taken  out  into  the  Pacific  Ocean  and  towed  to 
the  markets. 

These  giant  rafts  are  often  as  large  as  the  biggest  ocean 
steamer.  One  constructed  on  the  Columbia  was  seven 
hundred  feet  long,  fifty-three  feet  wide,  and  thirty  feet 
deep.  It  drew  about  twenty  feet  of  water  and  contained 
all  together  seven  thousand  logs.  This  great  mass  was 
placed  within  a  cradle  much  like  the  hull  of  an  ocean 
steamship,  and  so  wrapped  around  with  chains  that  it  was 
safely  carried  down  through  the  Columbia,  and  along  the 
coasts  of  Oregon  and  California,  to  the  Golden  Gate  and 


These  giant  rafts  are  often  as  large  as  the  biggest  ocean  sieamer." 


8o 


OUR   LOGGING   INDUSTRY 


San  Francisco  Bay,  a  distance  of  more  than  seven  hundred 
miles. 

In  our  great  forest  regions  east  of  the  Rocky  Mountains 
most  of  the  lumbering  is  done  in  the  winter,  the  logs  being 
loaded  on  sledges,  and  carried  on  roads  of  ice  or  snow  to 
the  streams.  The  snow  for  the  roads  is  often  beaten  hard 
and  then  sprinkled  with  water,  which   freezing,  turns  it  to 


if" 

u 

li^^l 

Logs  are  carried  on  roads  of  snow  to  the  streams. 

ice.  Some  of  the  sledge  loads  are  enormous,  comprising 
forty  or  fifty  logs  sixteen  feet  long,  containing  many 
thousand  feet  of  fine  lumber.  The  sledges  are  drawn  by 
teams  of  four,  six,  eight,  and  even  more  horses.  When 
the  loads  reach  the  streams  the  logs  are  rolled  out  upon 
the.  ice,  where  they  remain  until  spring.  As  the  warm 
weather  comes  the  ice  melts,  and  the  freshets  carry  the 
logs  down  to  the  rivers  and  lakes,  where  they  are  formed 
into  rafts  and  floated  or  towed  to  the  market. 


OUR   LOGGING   INDUSTRY  8 1 

The  men  who  go  with  these  rafts  sometimes  live  in  rude 
shanties  which  they  build  upon  them.  They  are  very  expert, 
and  run  over  the  logs  as  they  bob  up  and  down  and  roll 
about  in  the  water.  They  know  just  how  to  get  the  logs 
apart  if  they  should  pile  up  in  one  place,  and  how  to  keep 
them  from  jamming  together  as  they  are  carried  over  the 
rapids  or  falls.  When  a  jam  occurs,  one  or  two  logs  often 
form  a  key,  which  when  pulled  out  releases  the  whole 
mass.  The  drivers,  as  they  are  called,  understand  where 
these  keys  are  and  drag  them  out  with  cant  hooks.  Such 
work  is  dangerous,  and  the  men  engaged  in  it  are  some- 
times caught  and  crushed  by  the  flying  timbers,  or  dragged 
under  the  water  and  drowned. 

In  the  southern  forests  the  logs  are  taken  to  the  streams 
by  engines  over  the  railroads  or  by  wagons  drawn  by  long 
teams  of  oxen  or  horses.  They  are  put  together  in  rafts, 
upon  some  of  which  the  lumbermen  and  their  families  live 
as  they  float  down  to  the  seaports. 

The  trees  of  the  Eastern  forests  are  much  smaller  than 
those  of  the  Pacific  Coast,  and  most  of  the  logs  can,  if 
necessary,  be  handled  without  the  aid  of  machinery. 
Nevertheless  the  amount  of  timber  cut  is  enormous.  Dur- 
ing the  ten  years  from  1880  to  1890  it  has  been  estimated 
that  enough  logs  were  floated  to  the  markets  from  Minne- 
sota, Michigan,  and  Wisconsin  to  have  made  a  solid  pile 
four  times  as  wide  as  the  average  country  road  and  as  high 
as  a  four-story  house,  reaching  across  our  continent  from 
New  York  to  San  Francisco. 

We  enjoy  the  life  of  the  lumber  camp.  The  air  is  fresh, 
and  flavored  with  the  rich  smell  of  the  pines  and  the  saw- 
dust and  chips  of  the  newly  cut  logs.     The  lumbermen, 

CAKP.  HOUSES  —  6 


82  OUR   LOGGING   INDUSTRY 

although  rough  in  many  ways,  are  full  of  good  nature,  and 
they  make  us  at  home.  They  show  us  their  shoes,  the 
soles  of  which  are  studded  with  sharp  spikes  which  dig 
into  the  bark  as  they  walk  over  the  great  logs  and  give 
them  sure  footing.  We  go  with  them  to  the  camp  and 
eat  at  the  long  pine  table  around  which  they  gather  at 
meals.  Our  plates  are  of  tin  and  we  have  tin  cups  and 
bowls  and  tin  spoons  and  steel  forks.  The  food  consists 
of  soup,  corned  beef,  potatoes,  and  canned  goods  of  sev- 
eral varieties.  We  have  excellent  bread  and  cakes  made 
by  the  camp  cook,  baked  beans  which  remind  us  of 
Boston,  and  end  our  meal  with  mince  pie  hot  from  the 
stove.  We  are  told  that  this  diet  is  often  varied  with 
venison,  squirrels,  wild  birds,  and  other  game,  shot  in  the 
woods. 

We  stay  overnight  with  the  loggers,  sleeping  on  straw 
ticks  in  the  wide  bunks,  built  in  tiers  around  the  walls 
of  the  rude  log  house  in  which  they  live.  Before  going 
to  bed  one  of  our  friends  brings  out  a  fiddle,  and  we  laugh 
as  we  see  these  grown  men  dancing  together.  We  turn  in 
very  early,  for  we  are  tired  after  our  long  day  in  the  forest. 
By  nine  o'clock  the  lights  are  out.  We  fall  asleep  almost 
immediately,  and  do  not  wake  until  morning. 

There  are  hundreds  of  such  lumber  camps  in  the  Cas- 
cade Mountains,  and  a  vast  number  very  similar  to  them 
in  Cahfornia  and  in  the  Eastern  forest  regions  of  the 
United  States. 

All  together  we  have  several  hundred  thousand  men 
engaged  in  the  lumber  industry,  and  the  business  is  so 
extensive  that  its  product  often  sells  for  more  than  a  half 
billion  dollars  a  year.  ^ 


FROM   LOG  TO   LUMBER 


83 


9.     FROM    LOG   TO    LUMBER 

WE  have  left  the  woods  and  have  come  by  train  to 
Puget  Sound  to  see  the  logs  turned  into  lumber. 
We  are  about  to  visit  one  of  the  sawmills  for  which  this 
region  is  noted.  Its  buildings  cover  more  than  fifty  acres, 
and  it    has   a   water    front    big   enough    to    load    several 


"At  the  docks  are  vessels  taking  on  cargoes." 

steamers  at  the  same  time.  At  the  docks  are  huge  ves- 
sels taking  on  cargoes  of  beams,  rafters,  flooring,  and 
boards  of  all  kinds,  while  upon  the  railroad,  near  by,  the 
cars  are  loading  for  the  lumber  markets  of  the  Mississippi 
Valley  and  other  parts  of  the  country.  Some  of  the  ships 
are  bound  for  Alaska,  China,  Japan,  and  even  South 
Africa.  Others  are  taking  on  lumber  for  San  Francisco 
and  the  Panama  Canal.  There  is  a  sailing  vessel  just 
loaded  starting  out  for  Manila,  and  that   tramp   steamer 


84 


FROM   LOG  TO   LUMBER 


coming  in  will  leave  within  a  short  time,  carrying  its  cargo 
of  boards  to  the  Hawaiian  Islands.  Some  of  the  Pacific 
Coast  lumber  is  exported  to  Europe,  South  America,  Aus- 
tralia, and  indeed  all  over  the  world. 

But  come  with  me  to  the  other  end  of  the  yard.  We 
are  looking  down  upon  a  bay  or  inlet  with  a  narrow  strait 
leading  out  to  the  Sound.  The  surface  of  the  bay  is 
covered  with  logs,  floating  about,  awaiting  the  saws.  Some 
of  the  logs  are  thirty  or  more  feet  in  length,  and  many  are 
as  big  around  as  a  hogshead.  Several  men  are  moving 
about  upon  them,  pushing  them,  one  by  one,  to  a  great 
chute  which  extends  from  the  water  up  to  the  mill. 


In  the  lumber  yard. 

As  the  logs  near  the  chute,  they  are  caught  by  steel 
hooks  on  the  ends  of  thick  chains,  and  are  dragged  by  the 
engines  to  the  floor  of  the  mill.  They  move  as  though 
they  were  alive,  looking  like  gigantic  snakes,  as  they  crawl 
out  of  the  water  and  on  up  the  trough.     There  comes  one 


FROM    LOG   TO   LUMBER 


85 


Sawmill  in  California. 


now.  It  is  five  feet  thick,  forty  feet  long,  and  it  weighs 
many  tons.  Nevertheless  it  flies  aloft  as  though  it  were 
no  more  than  a  broom  handle,  and  drops  like  a  stick  on 
the  floor.  Now  great  iron  arms  rise  out  of  holes  on  each 
side  of  it.  They  catch  it  with  their  steel  talons  and  roll  it 
upon  a  truck  which  rests  upon  wheels  on  a  track.  One 
of  the  mill  men  pulls  a  lever,  and  the  truck,  moving  for- 
ward, carries  the  log  against  a  band  saw,  the  teeth  of  which 
cut  through  it  as  though  it  were  cheese. 

See,  a  great  slice  has  been  pared  from  one  side!  It  flies 
back,  and  another  slice  drops  off  from  the  side  opposite. 
Now  a  steel  arm  with  a  talon  at  the  end  rises  out  of  the 
floor  and  turns  the  log,  so  that  the  cut  sides  lie  beneath 
and  on  top,  while  four  other  arms  reach  up  and  arrange  it 
in  place  on  the  truck.  The  two  remaining  sides  are  sliced 
off  in   the   same  way,  and  our   log  has  become  a  square 


86  FROM   LOG  TO   LUMBER 

timber,  each  side  of  which  measures  four  feet.  A  motion 
from  the  head  sawyer  and  a  pull  at  the  levers,  and  the 
machinery  cuts  this  timber  into  flooring.  The  boards  pass 
on  to  other  machines  in  which  they  are  again  cut,  and 
finally  come  out  in  just  the  right  widths.  They  are  now 
carried  on  to  the  drying  rooms,  and  later  to  the  planers, 
where  they  are  smoothed  and  tongued  and  grooved. 

Other  kinds  of  lumber  are  cut  in  the  same  way,  the 
machinery  doing  so  much  of  the  work  that  the  log  is 
scarcely  touched  by  man's  hand  from  the  time  it  leaves  the 
water  until  in  its  finished  state  it  is  piled  upon  the  steamers 
or  cars  for  shipment  to  market. 

We  must  keep  our  eyes  open  as  we  go  through  the 
mill.  It  is  so  noisy  that,  scream  as  we  may,  we  cannot 
make  our  friends  hear.  The  screeching  of  the  saws  is 
such  that  the  men  who  do  the  work  are  directed  by  signs. 
They  are  all  under  the  head  sawyer,  who  might  be  called 
the  brains  of  the  machinery  and  who  is  paid  very  high 
wages.  He  stands  under  an  electric  light  in  about  the 
center  of  the  mill  with  his  hands  upon  the  levers  which 
control  the  sawing.  He  motions  the  men  at  the  trucks  to 
touch  such  other  levers  as  will  so  cut  the  logs  as  to  produce 
the  most  and  best  lumber,  and  a  few  mistakes  might  cost 
his  employers  hundreds  of  dollars. 

Now  look  at  the  saws.  They  are  different  from  any 
used  by  our  ancestors  when  they  built  the  board  houses  of 
colonial  times.  Then  and  for  a  long  time  thereafter, 
most  of  the  building  materials  were  sawed  out  by  hand. 
One  method  was  by  the  pit  saw  operated  by  two  men. 
The  pit  sawyer  stood  in  a  pit  over  which  the  log  was 
placed  and  pulled  the  saw  down,  while  the  other,  known  as 


FROM   LOG  TO   LUMBER 


87 


the  top  sawyer,  standing  upon  the  log,  drew  it  back  in  the 
opposite  direction.  The  first  circular  saw  was  invented  in 
England  about  1777,  but  was  not  employed  in  America 
until  many  years  later.  Such  saws  are  used  now  in  the 
smaller  mills  of    our  country,  but   the    great   band    saws 


Interior  of  mill  with  a  band  saw. 

and  gang  saws,  such  as  we  see  here,  are  common  only  in 
the  larger  establishments. 

The  band  saw  is  an  endless  strip  or  belt  of  steel,  with 
teeth  on  one  or  both  edges,  so  made  that  it  can  be  fitted 
over  two  large  wheels,  one  high  above  the  floor  and  the 
other  below  it.  The  wheels  are  moved  by  engines,  and 
as  they  go  the  steel  belt  flies  around  rapidly,  its  teeth  cut- 
ting through  everything  that  comes  against  them.  One  of 
the  band  saws  of  our  mill  is  eighty  feet  long,  and  it  rapidly 
cuts  its  way  through  the  great  logs  as  they  are  shoved 
against  its  sharp  and  fast-moving  teeth. 


88  FROM    LOG   TO   LUMBER 

The  gang  saw  consists  of  a  dozen  or  more  circular  saws 
parallel  with  each  other,  and  so  fastened  to  a  spindle  that 
they  fly  around  at  the  same  time.  The  saws  can  be  so 
graduated  that  boards  of  any  thickness  desired  are  cut 
by  them.  The  great  log  moves  against  them,  and  their 
teeth  saw  out  a  dozen  or  more  boards  at  once. 

Among  the  other  machines  used  in  our  lumber  mills  are 
steam  planers,  which  smooth  the  wood ;  lathes,  which  turn 
it  into  all  sorts  of  shapes;  and  finishing  machines  for  mak- 
ing moldings,  panels,  window-sash,  doors,  and  woodwork  of 
all  kinds. 

Every  large  lumber  mill  has  its  blacksmith  shop  where 
the  breakages  are  repaired,  and  a  department  in  which  the 
men  do  nothing  but  file  saws.  There  are  also  great  kilns 
lined  with  steam  pipes  to  dry  the  lumber,  and  special 
machines  for  carrying  it  out  and  loading  it  upon  the  steam- 
ers and  cars. 

The  United  States  has  many  sawmills  with  machinery 
much  hke  that  in  the  one  we  have  visited.  It  has  hun- 
dreds in  or  near  the  Pacific  Coast  forest,  and  in  our  north- 
ern and  southern  forests.  There  are  also  many  smaller 
mills  scattered  throughout  the  timber  regions.  Altogether 
we  have  more  than  eleven  thousand  lumber  mills,  which  in 
some  years  cut  twenty  or  thirty  billion  feet  of  lumber,  board 
measure.  We  have  hundreds  of  mills  that  make  lath  and 
other  cheap  lumber,  and  more  than  two  thousand  whose 
product  is  shingles.  Indeed,  a  large  part  of  our  nation  sleeps 
under  shingles  from  the  Pacific  Coast  forest,  such  roofing 
selling  for  miUions  of  dollars  a  year.  In  the  shingle  mills 
the  logs  go  in  as  bolts,  and  pass  through  machines  provided 
with  a  series  of  knives  which  cut  many  shingles  at  once. 


FROM    LOG   TO   LUMBER  89 

In  our  travels  through  the  timber  regions  we  may  learn 
something  of  the  kinds  of  wood  most  used  in  our  houses, 
and  the  places  from  whence  they  come.  The  greater  part 
of  it  is  yellow  pine,  including  therein  all  the  pine  lumber 
cut  in  the  eastern  half  of  the  United  States,  excepting  the 
white  and  Norway  pine.  This  yellow  pine  comes  chiefly 
from  Louisiana,  Arkansas,  Mississippi,  North  Carolina,  and 
Alabama,  and  in  lesser  quantities  from  Georgia,  Florida, 
South  Carolina,  and  Virginia. 

After  it  we  have  the  white  pine,  the  annual  product  of 
which  is  often  several  billion  feet.  This  is  from  the 
northern  forests,  and  especially  from  the  states  about 
Lakes  Superior,  Michigan,  and  Huron,  Next  come  the 
Douglas  fir  and  Oregon  pine,  of  which  we  saw  something 
in  our  Washington  lumber  camp,  and  after  them  the  hem- 
lock, of  which  Pennsylvania  cuts  most,  and  then  the  spruce, 
cypress,  white  oak,  and  other  hard  woods. 

In  addition  to  the  wood  used  for  building,  a  vast  amount 
is  needed  for  other  purposes.  Our  railroads  consume 
many  millions  of  ties  every  year.  We  use  an  enormous 
quantity  for  furniture.  We  require  millions  of  telegraph 
and  telephone  poles,  and  many  acres  of  trees  are  cut  down 
to  make  staves  for  barrels.  The  toothpick  is  little  more 
than  a  splinter,  but  there  is  a  single  factory  in  Maine  which 
makes  a  half  billion  of  them  every  year ;  and  we  have 
othei  establishments  which  turn  out  lead  pencils,  clothes- 
pins, and  wooden  spools  by  the  hundreds  of  millions. 
Several  hundred  acres  of  virgin  forests  are  used  annually 
for  matches,  and  more  than  three  tliousand  acres  of  hard 
wood  trees  are,  it  is  estimated,  cut  up  into  shoe  pegs. 

There  are  also  vast  quantities  of  hard  wood  used   for 


90  WOODWORKING   IN   OTHER   LANDS 

carts,  carriages,  and  cars  of  all  kinds.  A  great  deal  of 
soft  wood  goes  into  buckets  and  baskets,  to  say  nothing  of 
the  other  soft  wood  trees  which  are  annually  cut  down  to 
be  ground  into  wood  pulp  for  the  making  of  cardboard, 
and  the  paper  which  we  use  for  wall  coverings  and  for  our 
newspapers  and  books. 


oJ»Co 


lo.    WOODWORKING    IN    OTHER    LANDS 

OUR  travels  this  morning  begin  in  Burma.  We  are 
opposite  our  own  homes  on  the  other  side  of  the 
globe.  It  is  now  evening  in  the  United  States,  and  our 
friends  there  are  getting  ready  for  bed.     Here  the  sun  is 


In  the  teak  forests  of  Burma  where  elephants  draw  the  logs. 

just   rising  in  the  eastern   heavens,   and  day  has  begun. 
Perhaps  some  of  us  can  tell  why  this  is .'' 

But  our  business  here  is  to  find  out  how  woodworking 
is  done,  and  to  see  whether  it  is  really  true  that  elephants 
help  the  Burmese  build  their  houses.     To  do  this  we  shall 


WOODWORKING   IX   OTHER    LANDS  9 1 

first  go  to  the  great  forests  of  teak  which  cover  a  large 
part  of  the  peninsula  of  Farther  India.  The  teak  trees 
are  tall,  straight,  and  beautiful,  and  they  make  excellent 
lumber.  They  grow  in  tropical  parts  of  the  world  and 
therefore  there  is  no  snow  or  ice  on  which  to  sledge  the 
logs  out.  Much  of  the  forest  stands  in  the  swamp  and  it 
would  be  difficult  to  lay  railroads  upon  it  or  even  to  drive 
over  it  with  carts.  For  these  reasons  elephants  are  used 
to  drag  the  logs  to  the  streams. 

Teakwood  is  heavy,  and  the  trees  are  girdled  several 
years  before  they  are  cut.  This  causes  the  leaves  to 
wither  and  the  trees  to  die ;  the  sap  goes  out  of  them 
and  they  become  so  light  that  they  will  float.  They  are 
now  cut  down  with  axes  and  saws,  and  chopped  into  logs. 
Then  chains  are  wrapped  around  them,  and  one  by  one 
they  are  taken  off  to  the  streams.  This  is  done  by  ele- 
phants, which  are  hitched  by  chains  to  the  logs.  After  a 
time  the  paths  become  troughs,  into  w^hich  the  water  oozes 
and  makes  them  so  slippery  that  the  logs  slide  along  more 
easily.  Now  and  then  a  log  catches  its  end  in  the  mud, 
whereupon  the  elephant  stops  and  lifts  it  out  with  his 
tusks,  and  then  moves  it  onward.  The  elephants  push  the 
logs  apart  when  they  pile  up  in  the  water;  they  also  pull 
them  out  with  their  trunks  and  tusks,  and  lift  them  over 
the  shoals.  Only  strong  elephants  are  used  for  such 
work,  the  best  logging  animals  being  thirty,  forty,  or  even 
more  years  of  age. 

We  shall  now  suppose  we  have  left  the  forests  and  have 
come  to  the  lumber  yards  of  the  port  of  Rangoon  near  the 
mouth  of  the  Irrawaddy  River.  Here  many  logs  are 
sawed  into  lumber  for  use  in  house  building,  and  also  to 


92 


WOODWORKING   IN   OTHER   LANDS 


be  exported  to  other  parts  of  the  world.  Teak  is  one  of 
the  best  of  all  woods  for  ships,  and  it  is  also  valuable  for 
making  fine  furniture.  The  yard  we  visit  lies  on  the 
banks  of  the  river.  It  has  sawmills  and  planing  mills,  and 
we  can  see  its  great  piles  of  timber  before  we  come  to  it. 

Entering, 
we  find  a  score 
of  elephants 
aiding  the 
workmen;  or 
we  might  bet- 
ter say  that  the 


men  are  aiding  the 
elephants,  for  it  is 
the  huge  beasts 
which  do  the  heavi- 
est labor.  They  lift 
the  great  logs  upon 


They  lift  great  logs  upon  their  tu^Ks. 


their  tusks  and  carry  them  from  one  side  of  the  yard  to 
the  other.  They  pile  the  lumber;  and,  when  one  of  them 
cannot  raise  a  timber  to  the  place  where  it  should  be,  he 
will  often  rest  one  end  on  the  top  of  the  pile  and  then  lift- 
ing the  other  with  tusks  and  trunk,  give  it  a  kick  with  his 
hind  foot,  which  shoves  it  into  its  place.  The  elephants 
gather  up  the  scraps  of  lumber  and  lay  them  so  that  the 
workmen   can  rope  them  into  bundles.     After  this  they 


WOODWORKING   IN   OTHER   LAJSDS  93 

will  thrust  their  tusks  through  the  ropes  and  take  the 
bundles  as  they  are  told.  They  drag  the  logs  to  the  saw- 
mills and  carry  the  boards  to  the  steamers.  Each  of  the 
great  beasts  has  a  man  on  his  back,  who  directs  him  with 
a  goad,  at  the  end  of  which  is  a  sharp  hook.  The  ele- 
phant knows  just  what  each  touch  of  the  goad  means,  and 
if  he  does  not  obey,  the  driver  jabs  him  in  the  ear  with  the 
hook. 

The  elephants  are  intelligent.  They  know  the  hours 
during  which  their  work  is  done.  They  grow  restless  as 
noonday  approaches,  and  at  twelve  o'clock,  when  the 
whistle  sounds,  they  will  drop  whatever  they  have  on 
their  tusks  and  bolt  for  the  feeding  sheds.  It  is  the 
same  when  work  stops  at  night. 

We  talk  with  the  drivers  and  are  told  that  the  great 
beasts  must  be  handled  just  so.  Each  has  his  bath  twice 
a  day,  ajid,  after  this,  is  curried  all  over.  The  elephant  is 
a  sensitive  creature.  It  cannot  endure  certain  insects,  and 
if  the  smallest  bug  creeps  under  its  saddle,  the  huge  beast 
will  not  work  until  it  is  removed.  The  largest  elephant 
will  tremble  at  the  sight  of  a  mouse,  for  fear,  perhaps,  that 
the  little  animal  may  run  up  its  trunk. 

We  say  good-by  to  the  drivers  on  leaving,  and  throw 
them  some  coins.  They  rub  the  elephants'  heads  with 
their  heels,  whereupon  the  huge  beasts  raise  their  trunks 
high  into  the  air  and  give  us  a  royal  salute. 

These  elephants  are  valuable  animals.  A  full  grown 
one  will  bring  as  much  as  a  thousand  dollars,  and  a  prize 
worker  several  times  that.  They  are  caught  in  the  forests 
of  upper  liurma.  The  wild  ones  are  often  captured  in  pits 
or  corrals,  being  enticed  there  by  tame  elephants  trained 


94 


WOODWORKING   IN  OTHER   LANDS 


for  the  purpose.  When  a  wild  herd  is  found,  the  tame 
beasts  are  let  loose  and  allowed  to  mix  with  them.  The 
latter  follow  the  commands  of  their  masters,  and  lead  the 
herd  into  the  corrals.  The  men  then  rush  in  and  close  the 
openings,  after  which  the  wild  elephants  are  easily  caught. 
Traveling  northward  from  Burma  we  cross  over  the 
mountains  and  spend  some  time  in  moving  about  through 
the  great  empire  of  China.  This  is  one  of  the  old  lands 
of  the  world.  The  country  has  been  thickly  populated  for 
ages,  and  the  most  of  the  forests  have  long  since  disap- 
peared. There  is  no  saw  milling  industry,  such  as  is  found 
in  our  country  and  Europe,  and  the  methods  of  woodwork- 
ing are  crude.  Boards  are  usually  sawed  out  by  hand,  and 
the  planing  is  done  by  the  carpenters,  who,  block  by  block, 
work  every  bit  into  shape. 


Making  boards  in  China. 

The  sawing  of  lumber  may  be  seen  in  all  the  Chinese 
cities,  and  we  pass  many  log  yards  as  we  walk  through  the 


WOODWORKING   IN   OTHER   LANDS 


95 


streets.  The  logs  are  stood  upon  end  instead  of  being  laid 
flat  as  with  us,  and  each  is  marked  with  a  Chinese  char- 
acter which  tells  what  it  is.  In  turning  a  log  into  boards 
it  is  laid  upon  the  ground  with  one  end  raised  a  little 
higher  than  the  head  of  a  man,  and  the  sawing  is  done  by 
two  workmen  with  a  cross-cut  saw.  One  of  the  men 
I  stands  above  the  log,  and  the  other  beneath  it,  and  they 
pull  alternately,  thus  sawing  the  logs.  The  work  seems 
costly,  but  we  learn  that  the  wages  here  are  so  low  that  it 
is  almost  as  cheap 
as  though  done  by 
machinery.  Such 
lumbering  methods 
are  employed  here 
and  there  all  over 
Asia.  They  are  in 
use  in  many  parts 
of  Africa,  and  also 
in  other  places 
where  civilization 
is  backward,  labor  cheap,  and  machinery  comparatively  un- 
known. 

The  next  stop  in  our  travels  is  Japan,  a  country  which 
now  has  sawmills  and  planing  machinery,  although  much 
of  its  woodwork  is  still  cut  out  by  hand.  We  find  the 
houses  beautifully  built.  The  Japanese  are  among  the 
most  skillful  of  all  the  world's  workmen,  and  even  the 
common  carpenter  is  a  cabinetmaker.  We  visit  temples 
which  are  masses  of  carving,  and  observe  that  the  walls  of 
the  buildings  move  back  and  forth  as  easily  as  the  drawers 
of  a  bureau.     We  spend  some  time  watching  the  carpenters. 


Japanese  carpenters  at  work. 


96  WOODWORKING   IN   OTHER   LANDS 

observing  that  their  methods  of  doing  many  things  are  just 
the  opposite  of  ours.  When  a  man  planes  he  pulls  the 
plane  towards  him,  and  in  using  the  drawing  knife  he 
pushes  it  from  him.  We  begin  our  houses  on  the  ground, 
and  work  up  to  the  roof.  The  Japanese  makes  the  roof 
first.  He  then  puts  it  together  upon  a  scaffolding  of  poles, 
and  fills  in  the  framework  beneath. 

This  method  of  roof-making  is  not  confined  to  Japan. 
In  Java  the  people  often  build  the  roof,  which  is  of  palm 
leaves  and  bamboo  cane,  on  the  ground,  and  then  carry  it 
to  the  framework  of  the  house,  where  it  is  raised  into 
place.  In  such  cases  the  men  bearing  the  roof  walk  in- 
side it,  so  that  the  roof  seems  to  be  crawling  along  like  a 
centipede,  on  numerous  legs. 

The  bamboo  is  a  favorite  wood  for  buildings  of  many 
kinds  in  both  Japan  and  China.  It  is  cultivated  for  the 
purpose,  and  Japan  has  forests  of  well-kept  bamboo  trees 
which  are  cut  and  sold  for  timber.  The  Chinese  use  bam- 
boo for  more  purposes  than  any  other  wood.  It  forms  the 
scaffolding,  inside  which  they  build  their  houses.  They 
tie  the  poles  together,  forming  a  framework  more  solid 
than  though  it  were  put  up  with  bolts.  They  use  bamboo 
for  furniture,  making  chairs,  tables,  stools,  and  couches  of 
it.  It  forms  the  carrying  pole  of  the  coolie,  the  ribs  for 
the  sails  of  the  boatmen,  and  the  rain  hat  of  the  farmer. 
It  is  the  staff  of  the  small-footed  old  woman,  and  the  stick 
upon  which  the  blind  beggar  leans.  It  is  the  measuring 
rod  of  the  carpenter,  and  the  handle  of  his  tool.  It  is  also 
largely  employed  in  making  toys  for  children,  pen  handles 
for  scholars,  cages  for  birds,  and  coops  for  chickens.  The 
Chinese  boy  often  sleeps  on  a  bamboo  bed,  resting  his 


WOODWORKING   IN   OTHER   LANDS 


97 


head  on  a  bamboo  pillow,  which  is  a  framework  that  fits 
under  his  neck.  The  Japanese  use  this  wood  for  making 
paper,  and  it  is  also  employed  for  medicine,  while  the 
young  bamboo  shoots  are  eaten  for  food. 

Another  wood  of  many  uses  is  the  palm.     This  does  not 
grow  to  any  extent  in  either  Japan  or  China,  but  it  is  the 


'The  men  bearing  the  roof  walk  inside  it." 


chief  building  wood  of  some  tropical  lands.  It  is  of  many 
varieties,  and  is  employed  in  all  sorts  of  ways.  It  is  the 
principal  timber  of  the  Desert  of  Sahara,  and  the  houses 
of  the  oases,  which  are  composed  largely  of  mud,  have 
their  doors  and  windows  framed  with  the  rough  boards 
cut  from  the  date  palm.  The  coconut  palm  thrives 
in  the  warm  islands  of  the  Pacific,  where   it  is  used   for 

CAkl'.  HOUSKS  —  7 


98         AMONG  THE   RUINS   OF   SOME   GREAT   BUILDINGS 

building.  It  is  more  valuable,  however,  for  its  nuts  and 
the  thick  husks  which  surround  them.  The  nuts  arc  sold 
for  making  oil,  and  the  fibers  of  the  husks,  loosened  by 
soaking  them  in  water,  are  twisted  into  yarn,  from  which 
is  woven  the  coarse  carpet  or  matting  known  as  coir. 

The  leaves  of  the  nipa  palm  take  the  place  of  shingles 
upon  many  of  the  houses  of  the  Pacific  Islands.  They 
are  sewed  together  with  fiber,  and  tied  to  the  bamboo 
rafters.  They  are  also  employed  to  cover  the  walls.  The 
betel  palm  has  a  nut  which  is  chewed  by  the  natives  of 
Siam,  Malaysia,  and  the  islands  of  the  Dutch  East  Indies, 
much  as  some  people  chew  tobacco.  The  carnauba  palm 
has  not  only  a  fiber  which  the  natives  of  Brazil  use  for 
hammocks  and  other  purposes,  but  from  its  leaves  oozes 
forth  a  wax  which  makes  excellent  candles.  In  some 
years  milUons  of  pounds  of  this  wax  are  sold  for  house 
lighting. 

II.     AMONG    THE     RUINS     OF    SOME    GREAT 
BUILDINGS    OF   THE    PAST 

THE  next  field  of  our  travels  relates  to  stone  as  a  build- 
ing material,  but  before  visiting  the  great  quarries 
from  which  it  comes,  we  would  see  something  of  how  it 
was  used  in  the  past.  It  was  ages  after  the  half-naked 
savage  built  his  hut  of  rough  stones  that  mighty  structures 
were  erected  o(  marble  and  granite.  These  were  first 
made,  not  as  homes  for  the  living,  but  as  tombs  in  honor 
of  kings,  or  as  temples  for  the  worship  of  gods. 

Some  of  the  oldest  of  such  monuments  are  in  Egypt  on 


AMONG  THE   RUINS   OF   SOME   GREAT   BUILDINGS        99 

the  banks  of  the  Nile.  Let  us  visit  the  Great  Pyramid. 
We  are  standing  on  the  sands  of  the  desert  about  five 
miles  from  Cairo.  The  green  Valley  of  the  Nile  running 
north  and  south  lies  between  us  and  the  city,  but  skirting 
it  and  extending  back  from  it  on  all  sides  as  far  as  we  can 
see  is  a  vast  plain  of  gray  sand  and  rock,  out  of  which  rises 
a  mighty  pile  of  stone  so  wide  and  high  that  as  we  stand 
close  beside  it  it  seems  a  wall  to  the  sky.  Its  base  covers 
thirteen  acres,  and  it  is  laid  up  in  terraces  or  steps  of  huge 
blocks  of  stone,  some  of  which  are  as  high  as  a  table  and 
many  feet  long.  It  has  four  sloping  sides,  which  narrow 
as  they  rise  and  end  at  the  top  in  a  platform  big  enough 
to  make  the  foundation  for  a  good  sized  cottage. 

We  hire  several  black-skinned,  white-gowned  Bedouin 
boys  as  our  guides,  and  climb  up.  The  stones  are  so  big 
that  we  have  to  be  pulled  and  pushed  from  one  terrace  to 
another,  and  it  is  some  time  before  we  get  to  the  top.  The 
blocks  are  piled  up  in  layers,  fitted  so  closely  that  at  first 
the  whole  seems  one  mass  of  stone. 

In  descending,  we  make  our  way  around  to  a  little 
hole  on  the  thirteenth  terrace  in  the  northern  side  of 
the  structure,  and  find  there  a  narrow,  slanting  pas- 
sageway, up  which  we  crawl  on  our  hands  and  knees  to 
the  two  large  chambers  within.  They  are  as  dark  as 
night,  and  bats  fly  past  us  as  we  enter.  We  have  elec- 
tric lamps  in  our  pockets  and  by  pressing  a  button  get 
enough  light  to  see  well  about  us.  The  chambers  are 
floored,  walled,  and  ceiled  with  granite,  polished  as  smooth 
as  a  mirror,  and  so  closely  laid  that  we  cannot  in.sert  a 
knife  blade  in  the  cracks.  These  rooms  were  made  about 
five  thousand  years  ago  to  contain   the  bodies  of  King 


A    _'    -1  -f  the  Great  Pyramid  of  Cheops.     "The  blocks  are  piled  up 

in  layers." 
(100) 


AMONG  THE   RUINS  OF   SOME  GREAT   BUILDINGS       lOI 

Cheops  and  his  wife.  They  lay  there  for  ages,  but  from 
time  to  time  the  pyramid  has  been  torn  open  by  treasure 
hunters.  The  mummies  and  the  things  buried  with  them 
have  long  since  disappeared,  and  now  only  a  huge  granite 
sarcophagus    or  cofifin  remains. 

This  pyramid  was  more  than  twenty  years  in  construc- 
tion, and  it  is  recorded  that  one  hundred  thousand  men 
worked  upon  it  during  a  great  part  of  that  time.  The 
Greek  historian,  Herodotus,  relates  that  the  onions,  garlic, 
and  radishes  furnished  the  laborers  cost  almost  two  million 
dollars  and  that  it  took  years  to  make  the  road  over  which 
the  materials  were  carried.  The  stones  of  the  pyramid 
numbered  more  than  two  milHons,  and  of  those  that  wall 
the  king's  chamber,  single  blocks  weigh  sixty  tons.  It  is 
estimated  that  the  structure  contains  so  much  stone  that  if 
it  could  be  split  into  flags  four  inches  thick,  it  would  be 
enough  to  pave  a  road  two  feet  wide  over  sea  and  land 
clear  around  the  globe. 

Traveling  up  the  Valley  of  the  Nile,  we  see  other  pyra- 
mids standing  here  and  there  in  the  desert,  and  after  some 
days  on  our  steamer  reach  Luxor,  near  the  site  of  Thebes, 
an  ancient  city  which  had  more  than  a  million  people. 
Thebes  had  walls  so  thick  that  chariots  drawn  by  a  half 
dozen  horses  could  easily  pass  as  they  galloped  around 
Ihem.  It  had  one  hundred  gates,  and  its  temples  and 
palaces  were  among  the  world's  wonders.  The  homes  of 
that  day  have  long  since  passed  away,  but  the  ruins  of 
some  of  the  temples  are  still  to  be  seen.  We  visit  one 
at  Karnak  about  two  miles  from  Luxor,  the  huge  stones 
of  which,  ranged  about  courts  of  enormous  extent,  cover 
many  acres.     In  one  court  the  roof  was  upheld  by  immense 


I02      AMONG  THE   RUINS  OF  SOME  GREAT   BUILDINGS 

columns  of  sandstone  sixty  feet  high  and  from  thirteen  to 
fifteen  feet  thick,  many  of  which  are  still  standing.     These 


Temple  of  Karnak  with  obelisk  in  the  rear. 

columns  are  beautifully  carved.  They  were  erected,  it  is 
said,  by  King  Menes  more  than  forty  centuries  ago.  The 
temple  contained  statues  of  gold  and  ivory  studded  with 


AMONG  THE   RUINS   OF   SOME   GREAT  BUILDINGS       103 

jewels.  It  was  for  about  two  thousand  years  one  of  the 
most  sacred  places  in  Egypt. 

Among  the  other  things  here  are  two  obelisks,  great 
shafts  of  stone  like  that  which  was  brought  from  Egypt 
to  New  York  and  now  stands  in  Central  Park.  The 
obelisks  were  quarried  by  ancient  masons  from  hills  of 
granite  not  far  north  of  Luxor  near  Assouan,  and  some 
of  them  were  carried  down  the  Nile  on  rafts  or  boats 
to  Alexandria,  on  the  Mediterranean  Sea.  Others  were 
set  up  at  Thebes  and  some  at  Heliopolis,  and  at  other 
cities  along  the  great  river. 

Our  own  obelisk  stood  for  centuries  at  Alexandria. 
When  it  was  loaded  for  its  long  trip  to  New  York  a  hole 
was  cut  in  the  bow  of  the  steamer  in  order  to  admit  it,  and 
it  was  dragged  through  that  hole  into  the  ship.  Some 
years  before  that  another  of  the  obelisks  had  been  taken 
to  London,  being  transported  there  in  an  iron  water-tight 
cylinder  which  was  carried  to  Egypt  in  pieces  and  built 
around  the  huge  stone  as  it  lay  on  the  shore.  After  being 
encased,  the  great  cylinder  was  rolled  into  the  sea  and  a 
steamship  towed  it  to  London. 

Is  it  not  wonderful  that  these  men  who  lived  four  thou- 
sand years  ago  could  make  such  beautiful  things  out  of 
stone,  and  could  carry  such  heavy  masses  far  down  the 
Nile.?  It  seems  still  more  wonderful  when  we  remember 
that  they  did  this  ages  before  man  discovered  how  to  use 
steam  or  electricity,  and  many  centuries  before  he  had 
invented  machinery  to  aid  in  his  building. 

Returning  southward  to  Alexandria,  a  fe\y  days  by 
steamer  takes  us  across  the  Mediterranean  Sea  to  Athens, 
where,  on  a  great  hill  of   rose-colored  limestone,  stood 


I04      AMONG  THE   RUINS   OF   SOME   GREAT   BUILDINGS 


Parthenon. 


the  Parthenon,  one  of  the  most  beautiful  marble  temples 
ever  erected.  We  drive  to  the  foot  of  the  Acropolis,  as 
this  hill  is  called,  and  wind  our  way  to  the  top.  We. 
are  now  five  hundred  feet  above  Athens,  with  magnifi- 
cent views  of  the  mountains  and  the  blue  Mediterranean 
and  its  numerous  islands.  All  about  us  lie  huge  broken 
columns  and  other  pieces  of  marble  beautifully  carved. 
The  ruins  of  temples  stand  here  and  there,  and  upon  a 
marble  platform,  covering  almost  half  an  acre,  are  some 
of  the  columns  which  once  upheld  the  temple  in  which 
stood  the  gold  and  ivory  statue  of  Athena,  the  Goddess 
of  Wisdom.  This  temple  was  the  Parthenon.  It  was 
made  of  white  marble,  from  the  quarries  of  Mount  Pen- 
telikon  not  far  away.  The  marble  blocks  were  laid  up 
without  mortar,  the  columns  being  of  cylindrical  sections 
roughly  hewed  and  finished  after  they  had  been  placed 
in  position.     The  front  of  the  Parthenon  was  covered  with 


AMONG  THE    RUINS   OF   SOME   GREAT   BUILDINGS       10$ 


carvings,  many  of  which  have  been  broken  off  and  carried 
to  the  British  Museum  at  London.  Some  still  stand,  and 
some  are  now  in  the  Museum  at  Athens. 

We  shall  find  other  great  works  of  marble  built  by  the 
Romans  in  Italy,  and  also  in  northern  Africa  and  Asia 
Minor,  where  they  had  colonies  before  the  Christian  era. 
In  Rome  itself  they  had  magnificent  structures  formed  of 
the  marble  which  came  from  the  mines  of  Carrara  not  far 
away.  These  buildings  consisted  of  palaces,  temples,  and 
open-air  theaters.  The  chief  of  the  last-named  was  the 
Colosseum,  a  massive  circus  of  stone  and  brick,  inside 
which  lions,  elephants,  and  tigers  fought  together  before 
the  eyes  of  the  people.  They  fought  also  with  the  glad- 
iators, and  the  latter 
fought  each  other.  In 
this  place  were  held 
real  sea  fights,  made  by 
flooding  the  arena,  and 
chariot  races,  and  many 
other  entertainments. 
The  Colosseum  had 
seats  for  more  than 
eighty  thousand  specta- 
tors. It  covered  seven 
acres,  comprising  an 
arena  or  show  place 
level  with  the  ground 
and  a  series  of  galleries 
running  around  it  ex- 
tending upward  in  ter- 
races    until     it     reached  a  column  oi  me  Parthenon. 


I06      AMONG  THE   RUINS   OF   SOME   GREAT   BUILDINGS 

the  top  of  the  walls  at  the  back.  The  walls  \.ere  one 
hundred  and  sixty  feet  in  height,  and  when  the  sun  was 
hot,  an  enormous  canvas  was  stretched  over  them  as  a 
roof.  The  building  contained  many  rooms,  including 
cages  for  lions,  tigers,  and  elephants. 


A  bit  of  marble  carving  from  the  Temple  of  Baalbek. 

Traveling  from  Rome  to  Naples  by  train  we  take  ship 
there  and  steam  to  Beirut  in  Syria,  from  whence  a  few  hours' 
ride  upon  the  railroad  carries  us  over  the  first  range  of  the 
Lebanon  mountains  to  the  famed  ruins  of  Baalbek.  These 
are  the  remains  of  a  mighty  temple  of  marble  erected  by 
the  Romans  to  the  worship  of  the  heathen  god  Baal. 
The  temple  was  built  when  the  Roman  Empire  was  in  the 
height  of  its  glory,  and  it  was  beyond  description  mag- 
nificent. Inside  it  was  a  solid  gold  statue  of  the  god,  rep- 
resenting  a  young  man  clad  in  armor  and  accompanied 


AMONG  THE   RUINS   OF   SOME  GREAT   BUILDINGS       lO/ 

by  two  golden  bulls.  He  held  a  whip  in  his  right  hand, 
and  a  thunderbolt  and  some  ears  of  corn  in  his  left.  The 
temple  had  also  statues  of  many  others  of  the  gods  of  the 
Romans,  including  INIercury  and  Venus. 

The  stones  of  this  temple  are  gigantic.  Some  of  the 
marble  columns  are  as  big  around  as  a  hogshead,  and 
fifty  or  sixty  feet  long.  They  are  put  together  in  sec- 
tions, and  their  capitals  are  exquisitely  carved.  In  the 
foundation  are  great  blocks  of  stone  thirty-five  feet  long, 
twelve  feet  wide,  and  thirteen  feet  thick.  Some  of  them 
are  estimated  to  weigh  more  than  fifteen  hundred  tons 
each ;  but  notwithstanding  their  great  size  and  weight 
they  were  carried  over  the  hills  from  the  quarries  and 
placed  in  the  walls  without  breaking.  Such  feats  of 
engineering  would  be  considered  wonderful  by  our  builders 
to-day. 

As  we  look  at  the  structure  our  guides  ask  us  to  visit 
the  quarries,  and  see  a  stone  which  was  cut  out  for  the 
temple  but  which  for  some  reason  was  left  where  it  lay. 
We  go  with  them  and  take  measurements  of  it.  The 
great  block  lies  on  the  ground  just  outside  the  quarry 
with  one  end  half  buried  in  the  earth.  We  climb  up  and 
take  a  run  up  and  down  it.  It  is  just  fourteen  feet  thick, 
and  so  wide  that  two  automobiles  could  be  driven  abreast 
upon  its  face  without  falling  over  the  sides.  The  length 
is  seventy  feet  and  if  it  were  stood  upon  end,  it  would  be 
as  high  as  a  six-  or  seven-story  house.  This  huge  mass 
is  one  solid  stone,  which  was  cut  out  for  the  temple.  It  is 
just  like  others  which  were  carried  there  from  this  quarry 
and  lifted  to  place. 

Traveling  on  around  the  world  we  stop  now  and  then 


I08      AMONG  THE   RUINS   OF  SOME   GREAT  BUILDINGS 

to  see  other  famous  structures  built  by  the  people  of  cen- 
turies past.  At  Agra  on  the  banks  of  the  Jumna  River, 
in  the  heart  of  India,  we  visit  the  Taj  Mahal,  which  is 
perhaps  the  most  beautiful  marble  building  ever  erected. 
Travelers  have  called  it  a  poem  in  stone ;  and  one  has 
said  that  it  would  be  as  easy  to  tell  how  the  birds  sing 
or  the  hlacs  smell  as  to  describe  it.  It  is  an  ivory  white 
mosque  or  tomb,  covering  acres,  rising  to  a  height  one 
third  as  great  as  that  of  the  Washington  Monument,  and 
ending  in  a  dome  which  seems  to  float  in  the  sky.  The 
Taj  Mahal  is  of  the  purest  white  marble,  and  the  dome 
looks  like  a  silvery  bubble  which  might  have  been  blown 
from  the  mouth  of  the  heathen  god  Atlas,  who,  the  an- 
cient Greeks  imagined,  held  up  the  skies  on  his  shoulders. 


"The  Taj  Mahal  is  of  the  purest  white  marble. 


AMONG  THE   RUINS   OF   SOME   GREAT   BUILDINGS       109 

The  Taj  was  inlaid  with  jewels,  and  in  it  are  screens  of 
marble  latticework  in  patterns  as  exquisite  as  beautiful 
lace.  It  was  built  by  a  Mohammedan  sultan,  who  was 
born  just  one  hundred  years  after  Columbus  discovered 
America,  and  it  was  erected  by  him  in  memory  of  his 
wife.  Near  it  stand  other  temples  and  palaces,  includ- 
ing a  building  of  marble  so  beautiful  that  those  who 
made  it  engraved  in  Arabic  letters  upon  its  walls  :  "  If 
there  is  a  Paradise  on  earth,  it  is  this!  It  is  this!  It  is 
this!" 

In  the  interior  of  the  island  of  Java,  we  find  a  stone 
monument  or  temple  which  was  erected  to  Buddha  so  long 
ago  that  the  natives  cannot  tell  when.  It  covers  an  area 
more  than  one  half  as  large  as  that  of  the  Pyramid  of 
Cheops,  rising  in  terraces  decorated  with  statues  and  won- 
derful carvings  in  great  profusion.  I  once  counted  eight 
carved  figures  on  the  stone  walls  in  a  space  a  yard  square ; 
and  it  is  estimated  that  all  the  carvings  if  stretched  out 
in  one  line  would  extend  three  miles.  The  statues  about 
the  monument  number  hundreds,  and  some  of  them  are 
giants  in  stone. 

Going  northward  to  Peking  in  China  we  visit  the  Temple 
of  Heaven,  another  mighty  structure  of  marble.  It  con- 
sists of  a  great  platform  upon  which  the  Emperor  kneels 
when  he  sacrifices  and  prays  for  his  people.  In  our  own 
hemisphere  in  the  wilds  of  Yucatan  are  the  ruins  of  stone 
cities  built  by  the  Indians  with  their  stone  tools  long,  long 
ago.  Moreover,  scattered  throughout  Europe  are  magnifi- 
cent cathedrals  of  stone  built  during  the  Middle  Ages, 
and  here  and  there  are  the  ruins  of  stone  castles  in  which 
the  kings,  knights,  and  barons  of   those  days  held  their 


no 


A   VISIT  TO  THE  QUARRIES 


We  visit  the  Temple  of  Heaven. 

courts.     Indeed,  the  massive  stone  structures  of  the  past 
are  so  many  that  it  is  impossible  to  visit  them  all. 


O>»{0 


12.     A   VISIT   TO   THE   QUARRIES  —  MARBLE, 
GRANITE,   AND   SLATE 

"  Little  I  ask  ;  my  wants  are  few ; 
I  only  wish  a  hut  of  stone 
(A  very  plain  brown  stone  will  do) 
That  I  may  call  my  own  ; 
And  close  at  hand  is  such  a  one 
In  yonder  street  that  fronts  the  sun." 

TO-DAY  we  shall  learn  something  more  of  stone  as  a 
building   material.     We    have   seen  how  it  was  em- 
ployed for  the  temples,  cathedrals,  palaces,  and  other  costly 


A   VISIT  TO  THE   QUARRIES  III 

Structures  of  the  past.  It  is  so  used  to-day.  Our  finest 
public  buildings  are  made  of  granite  or  marble  ;  and  the 
brown  stone  mansion  which  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes  jok- 
ingly refers  to  in  the  verse  which  begins  this  chapter  is 
often  spoken  of  as  the  home  of  the  rich.  We  have,  how- 
ever, such  a  wealth  of  building  stone  in  our  country  that 
it  forms  a  large  part  of  the  dwelHngs  of  the  people  who 
are  not  wealthy;  and  by  machinery  the  cost  of  fitting  it 
for  buildings  has  been  so  reduced  that  the  stone  house  is 
within  the  purse  of  many  men.  Moreover,  stone  is  used 
in  all  sorts  of  dwellings  in  combination  with  wood,  brick, 
concrete,  or  steel ;  and  we  have  few  cottages  so  poor  that 
they  are  not  built  upon  stone  foundations. 

Indeed,  the  demand  for  building  stone  is  such  that  getting 
it  out  and  preparing  it  for  the  market  has  become  one  of 
our  chief  industries.  We  have  vast  sums  of  money  invested 
in  quarries,  and  their  annual  product  sells  for  more  than 
fifty  million  dollars.  Thousands  of  men  are  kept  busy 
taking  out  the  stone  and  in  cutting  and  preparing  it  for 
use.  Other  thousands  are  engaged  in  transporting  it  to 
the  markets,  and  still  others  in  laying  it  up  in  the  various 
forms  needed  for  building. 

Before  visiting  the  quarries,  we  should  know  something 
of  the  various  kinds  of  stone  most  used.  We  have  seen 
some  of  the.se  in  our  travels  among  the  ruins  of  the  past. 
We  found  granite  in  the  great  temples  at  Thebes,  marble 
in  the  Parthenon  at  Athens,  and  sandstone  in  some  of  the 
cathedrals  and  castles  of  medieval  Europe.  The  best 
building  stones  are  those  which  are  strongest,  most  durable, 
and  most  easily  worked.  Of  all,  granite  is  perhaps  the 
nearest    perfection,    although    it   crumbles    under   intense 


112 


A  VISIT  TO  THE   QUARRIES 


heat.  It  has  been  used  for  ages,  and  is  found  to  last  the 
longest  of  all.  It  is  very  hard  and  it  contains  minerals  of 
several  kinds. 


Cutting  columns  of  Maine  granite. 

Our  chief  granite  beds  are  in  Maine  and  Massachusetts, 
although  we  have  extensive  deposits  in  many  other  parts 
of  the  Union.  Granite  is  quarried  in  every  state  border- 
ing on  the  Appalachian  Range,  and  also  in  California, 
Colorado,  Wyoming,  Wisconsin,  and  Missouri.  The  New- 
England  granite  is  chiefly  gray  in  color,  although  there  are 
red  and  pink  granites,  and,  indeed,  some  of  nearly  all 
colors  from  light  gray  to  black.  Fine  red  granite  is  quar- 
ried in  Nova  Scotia,  Scotland,  and  Sweden.  The  red 
T,rranite  of  Assouan  near  Thebes  is  close  grained,  and  it 
takes  a  beautiful  polish. 

We  all  know  what  sandstone  is,  although  perhaps  not 
many  of  us  could  tell  every  kind  of  stone  which  goes  by  that 
name.  All  sandstones  are  composed  of  rounded  or  angular 
grains  of  sand  cemented  together  by  other  materials  so  as 
to  form  a  solid  rock.  The  cementing  materials  are  certain 
forms  of  iron,  lime,  and  siUca,  and  the  color  of  the  stone 


A  VISIT  TO  THE  QUARRIES 


113 


varies  much  according  to  the  cementing  mixture  and  also 
as  to  the  size  of  the  grains  of  which  it  is  composed. 
Some  sandstones  are  gray,  others  blue,  yellow,  brown, 
drab,  pink,  or  red.  The  red  and  brown  sandstones  of 
New  Jersey  are  much  used  in  the  finer  homes  of  New 
York,  while  many  of  our  larger  public  buildings  are 
made  of  the  Berea  sandstone  from  northern  Ohio,  which 
is  almost  white.  Nearly  every  locality  has  its  own  sand- 
stones, and  we  have  many  cities  which  are  largely  built 
of  them. 

Another  building  stone  which  we  all  know  well  is  slate. 
We  have  all  used  slates  and  slate  pencils,  and  many  of  us 
sleep  under  slate  roofs  and  have  slate  mantels  in  our  own 
homes.  This  stone  is  composed  of  a  clay  which  has  so 
hardened  throughout  the  ages  that  it  lies  in  a  series  of  thin 
planes  one  above  the  other,  and  can  be  split  off  in  great 
sheets.     We  have  extensive  slate  quarries  in   Maine,  Ver- 


In  an  Ohio  sandstone  quarry. 
CARP.  HOUSES — 8 


114  A   VISIT  TO  THE   QUARRIES 

mont,  New  York,  Pennsylvania,  Maryland,  and  Georgia,  as 
well  as  in  other  states. 

In  mining  slate  the  stone  is  cut  by  machinery  and  taken 
out  in  blocks.  It  is  then  split  into  sheets  of  the  thick- 
ness desired.  The  roofing  slates  are  cut  from  thin  sheets,  and 
laid  on  like  shingles.  The  slate  used  for  table  tops  and 
mantels  is  often  two  or  more  inches  in  thickness.  School 
slates  are  thin  sheets  ground  and  cut  by  steel  saws,  ten 
inches  in  diameter,  which  go  round  at  the  rate  of  two 
thousand  revolutions  a  minute.  After  this  the  slates  are 
smoothed  by  machinery  or  hand,  and  then  dyed.  The  dye 
soaks  into  the  slate,  and  makes  its  color  uniform. 

Next  to  granite,  Hmestone  is  the  most  durable  of  all 
building  stones,  and  it  is  about  the  most  used.  It  consists 
of  carbonate  of  lime  with  various  impurities  which  give 
it  its  color;  so  that  it  is  found  in  all  shades  and  tints  from 
white  to  blue,  green,  yellow,  pink,  red,  and  black.  It  is  of 
many  varieties,  from  the  coarse  stones  used  for  paving  to 
the  pure  white  marble  from  which  statues  are  cut,  or  the 
alabaster  or  onyx  of  our  clocks,  vases,  table  tops,  and  man- 
tels. Limestone  is  also  burned  to  make  lime.  It  is  used 
in  the  smelting  of  iron  and  lead  and  in  glass  manufacture, 
so  that  you  see  in  one  form  or  another  it  has  a  great  deal 
to  do  with  our  homes. 

Among  the  most  beautiful  of  the  limestones  are  the 
marbles.  These  are  fine  crystals  so  combined  that  in  its 
purest  form  the  white  stone  will  sparkle  and  flash  in  the 
rays  of  the  sun.  Marbles  are  of  different  colors,  made  so  by 
the  other  substances  mixed  with  the  hme.  We  find  them 
pink,  red,  yellow,  or  brown,  and  often  drab,  green,  and  black. 
The  same  stone  may  have  numerous  colors  running  in  veins 


A   VISIT  TO  THE   QUARRIES  I  i  5 

and  otherwise  through  it,  and  we  have  some  localities  where 
there  are  beautiful  marbles  of  many  hues.  This  is  espe- 
cially true  of  those  from  Tennessee  and  Georgia,  while 
those  of  Vermont  range  from  snow-white  to  green  or  dark 
blue. 

Some  of  the  finest  and  purest  marble  ever  discovered 
came  from  the  Greek  island  of  Paros.  It  was  from  that 
stone  that  the  ancient  Greeks  made  their  most  beautiful 
statues.  The  marble  of  the  Parthenon  came  from  Mount 
Pentelikon  not  far  from  Athens,  and  a  large  part  of  that 
employed  in  the  Forum  and  the  palaces  at  Rome  was 
from  the  quarries  of  Carrara,  which  have  been  mined  for 
thousands  of  years.  The  emperor  Caesar  Augustus  said 
it  was  due  to  them  that  he  was  able  to  transform  Imperial 
Rome  from  a  city  of  brick  to  a  city  of  marble. 

The  Carrara  marble  mines  lie  on  the  slopes  of  the  Apen- 
nine  Mountains.  They  are  close  to  the  town  of  Carrara, 
and  five  miles  from  the  little  port  of  Avenza  on  the  Medi- 
terranean Sea,  They  are  situated  near  the  railroad  be- 
tween Pisa  and  Florence,  and  can  be  easily  reached. 
Comfortable  steamers  leave  New  York  every  week  for 
Gibraltar,  Genoa,  and  Naples,  and  from  the  two  latter 
ports  we  can  easily  get  to  Carrara  by  rail,  or  by  a  small 
coasting  steamer  can  land  at  Avenza.  We  shall  do  the 
latter.  As  we  step  out  upon  the  wharf,  we  see  many 
boats  taking  on  marble,  and  long  teams  of  horned  oxen, 
bringing  great  loads  of  the  white  stone  down  to  the  ships. 
The  marble  is  in  blocks  of  all  weights  from  forty  tons 
downward,  and  it  glistens  in  the  sunlight  as  it  lies  on  the 
quays. 

We  wind  our  w^ay  in  and  out  among  such  blocks  as  we 


ii6 


A   VISIT  TO  THE   QUARRIES 


go  to  the  Station,  and  our  journey  to  Carrara  is  through  a 
country  of  marble.  The  railroad  track  is  ballasted  with  it, 
and  the  train  now  and  then  passes  through  tunnels  cut  out 
of  the  white  rock.  On  all  the  sidings  are  trucks  loaded 
with  marble  and  the  very  streets  of  Carrara  are  snow-white 

from  the  marble 
ground  into  them, 
while  marble  dust 
fills  the  air. 

The  town  of  Car- 
rara has  thirty  thou- 
sand inhabitants. 
At  first  sight  it 
seems  to  be  one  vast 
marble  workshop. 
In  every  street  we 
hear  the  chiseling, 
sawing,  and  grind- 
ing as  the  tools  cut 
the  white  stone. 
In  this  shop  they 
are  making  mantels 
for  fireplaces,  in  that 
Quarrying  at  Carrara.  ^^^^  ^^^  carving  out 

tombstones  and  statues,  and  on  the  other  side  of  the  way  is 
a  building  where  the  sculptors  are  making  the  decorations 
for  a  palace  in  France. 

We  put  on  dark  glasses  to  shield  our  eyes  from  the 
glare  all  around  us,  and  go  out  to  the  hills  where  the  men 
are  blasting  the  rock.  The  country  is  all  solid  marble. 
The  quarries  extend  far  up  the  mountains  and  there  are 


There  are  large   marble  quarries  near  Rutland  where  the  stone  is  got 
out  by  machinery." 


Il8  A   VISIT  TO  THE   QUARRIES 

workings  all  the  way  up.  The  men  begin  at  the  foot  of  a 
hill  and  blast  down  the  rock,  cutting  out  great  amphi- 
theaters. There  are  several  hundred  quarries  now  work- 
ing, and  in  them  about  seven  thousand  men  are  busy  year 
in  and  year  out.  The  annual  product  is  often  two  hundred 
thousand  tons,  and  this  is  carried  to  all  parts  of  the  civilized 
world  where  the  finest  and  purest  of  stone  is  required. 

The  men  work  carefully.  They  understand  just  what 
holes  to  drill,  and  where  to  insert  the  dynamite  to  break 
off  the  marble  in  pieces  of  the  right  shape.  They  know 
how  to  lower  the  blocks,  using  ropes  as  big  around  as  our 
ankles  in  moving  the  stones  down  the  mountains  on  sleds 
of  beech  wood.  When  they  get  to  the  bottom  the  marble 
is  raised  by  jackscrews  to  the  wagons  or  trucks,  and  carried 
away  by  engines  or  oxen  to  Carrara  or  Avenza. 

But  suppose  we  return  to  the  United  States  and  see  our 
own  quarries.  We  use  something  like  twenty-five  million 
dollars  worth  of  marble  a  year,  and  almost  the  whole  of  it  is 
produced  in  different  parts  of  our  country.  More  than  half 
comes  from  Vermont.  There  are  large  marble  quarries 
near  Rutland  where  the  stone  is  got  out  by  machinery,  and 
handled  much  better  than  in  the  mines  of  Carrara.  The 
chief  quarries  there  are  under  what  was  once  a  hilly  sheep 
pasture  and  a  swamp  which  adjoined  it.  The  land  was  for- 
merly worth  so  little  that  it  was  refused  as  security  for  a 
few  hundred  dollars;  and  in  1836,  when  William  Barnes 
offered  an  old  horse  valued  at  seventy-five  dollars  for  it, 
the  owner  was  glad  to  sell.  Barnes  had  noticed  the  marble 
rock  jutting  out  of  the  earth,  and  he  bought  the  place  with 
the  idea  of  burning  it  to  make  lime.  He  started  his  kiln; 
but  soon  after  began  to  manufacture  tombstones  of  marble, 


A  VISIT  TO  THE  QUARRIES 


119 


and  thus  unearthed  this  treasure  vault  of  beautiful  stone. 
In  time  Rutland  became  a  great  marble  quarry,  and  the 
stone  mined  there  and  in  other  parts  of  Vermont  now 
annually  sells  for  several  milHons  of  dollars. 

In  the  quarries  of  Proctor,  drills  have  been  sunk  to  a 
depth  of  two  hundred  feet  through  this  solid  white  lime- 


Vermont  marble  quarry. 


Stone,  and  tens  of  thousands  of  tons  of  marble  are  annually 
mined.  The  water  power  of  Otter  Creek  is  used  to  gener- 
ate the  electricity  which  runs  the  machinery  for  sawing  and 
cutting  the  stone  and  for  turning  and  smoothing  it  for  the 
market.  The  blocks  are  moved  about  by  electric  cranes, 
and  by  the  same  power  are  sawed  into  slabs  of  the  shapes 
and  sizes  required.  The  cranes  lift  the  marble  as  though 
it  were  feathers,  a  thirty-ton  block  being  carried  hither  and 


I20 


A   VISIT  TO   THE   QUARRIES 


thither  by  the  turning  of  a  lever  in  the  hands  of  a  work- 
man. 

It  is  interesting  to  see  how  the  sawing  and  cutting  are 
done.  A  machine  called  a  channeler  is  used.  This  con- 
sists of  a  row  of  long  chisels  so  set  in  a  framework  that 
they  move  up  and  down  as  they  go  over  the  face  of  the  mar- 
ble ledge,  cutting  deep  into  the  rock.  After  that  cross  chan- 
nels are  cut.  Then  wedges  are  carefully  driven  into  these 
cuts,  and  the  block  splits  apart  without  otherwise  breaking. 
In  preparing  the  stone  for  the  market  it  is  cut  into  slabs  and 

other  shapes  by  sand 
saws,  which  are  blades 
of  soft  iron  without  teeth, 
upon  which  a  stream  of 
water  mixed  with  sand  is 
poured.  The  sand  does 
the  cutting,  grinding  out 
the  stone  asit  rolls  over  it, 
pressed  down  by  the  saw. 
This  method  of  cutting 
marble  was  known  to  the 
ancients,  but  its  use  in 
our  American  quarries 
came  from  the  invention 
of  Isaac  Markham,  a 
boy  of  ten  years,  who 
saw  the  marble  workers 
grinding  or  smoothing 
their  slabs  with  water  and  sand,  which  they  rubbed  over 
them  with  flat  stones  held  in  the  hand.  Young  Markham 
made   a   model  of  narrow  strips  of   steel   so   fixed  in  a 


'  A  machine  called  a  channeler  is  used. 


A   VISIT   TO  THE  QUARRIES 


121 


frame  that  it  could  be  moved  back  and  forth  by  a  crank. 
This  was  first  used  in  the  quarries  of  Vermont,  and  from 
it    came    the    machine 
sand    saws,    moved    by 
steam  engines. 

In  many  of  our  quar- 
ries the  stones  are  forced 
out  of  the  beds  where 
they  he  by  plugs  and 
feathers.  Is  it  not 
strange  to  think  of  feath- 
ers being  used  to  split 
apart  these  hard  stones .-' 

Yes,  but  not  so  much 
so  when  you  understand 
just  what  the  quarry  man 
calls  "feathers."  By 
this  he  means  wedges 
which  are  flat  on  one 
side  and  half  round  on 
the  other,  the  plug  being 
another  wedge  with 
plane  faces.  In  splitting  the  stone,  round  holes  are  drilled 
along  the  line  where  the  breaking  place  is  desired,  and 
in  each  of  these  holes  are  placed  a  plug  and  two  feathers. 
The  round  sides  of  the  feathers  with  the  sharp  end  of  the 
plug  or  wedge  between  them  just  fit  the  holes,  and  as  the 
plug  is  driven  down  it  forces  the  feathers  apart,  exerting 
an  intense  i)ressurc.  At  the  same  time  the  other  holes  are 
similarly  treated,  the  combined  force  being  so  great  that 
the  hard  rock  breaks  away. 


Marble  staircase  of  Congressional  Library. 


122  ARTIFICIAL   STONE 

Some  of  our  largest  buildings  have  walls  of  marble  and 
some  have  marble  staircases  and  halls  where  the  stones 
are  beautifully  carved.  This  is  especially  so  in  the  Con- 
gressional Library  at  Washington,  one  of  the  most  beauti- 
ful structures  of  modern  times. 


o>»jo 


13.   ARTIFICIAL  STONE  — CONCRETE,  CEMENT, 
AND  PLASTER 

THE  building  stones  we  have  so  far  seen  are  those  made 
by  nature,  working  throughout  the  ages.  Some  of 
them,  such  as  the  sandstones,  are  composed  of  grains  of 
sand  similar  to  that  of  the  seashore,  glued  or  cemented 
together  by  other  materials  and  by  pressure  transformed 
into  rock.  The  marbles  are  of  white  crystals  often  col- 
ored by  the  cementing  materials,  the  sandstones  receiving 
their  colors  in  the  same  way. 

All  such  stones  formed  by  nature  have  to  be  cut  into 
the  shapes  and  sizes  desired  for  building,  and  there  are 
many  places  in  our  houses  in  which  it  is  difficult  to  use 
them.  For  this  reason  man  early  began  to  look  about  for 
something  which  would  take  the  place  of  stone.  He  found 
one  substitute  in  clay,  of  which  he  made  bricks,  burning 
them  so  that  they  became  as  hard  as  stone,  and  another  in 
concrete,  which  is  really  an  artificial  stone  made  by  man. 

By  studying  and  experimenting  it  was  discovered  that  a 
cement  could  be  formed,  which,  if  mixed  with  water  and 
poured  over  grains  of  sand,  stones,  and  other  materials, 
would,  as  it  dried  and  hardened,  bind  them  together  almost 
as  strongly  as  the  cementing  materials  of  nature  bind  the 


ARTIFICIAL   STONE 


123 


grains  of  sand  in  the  sandstones.  This  cement,  in  many 
parts  of  Europe,  is  known  as  Roman  cement  because  the 
Romans  used  something  like  it  in  their  building  construc- 
tion. In  our  country  it  goes  by  the  name  of  Portland 
cement  or  hydraulic  cement  because  it  is  one  of  the  rock 
cements  which  will  harden  to  stone  under  water.     There 


Concrete  house  under  construction. 

are  other  hydraulic  cements,  but  the  Portland  cement  is 
most  commonly  used  in  making  concrete  or  artificial  stone. 
This  Portland  cement  consists  of  rock  containing  lime- 
stone and  clay,  or  marl  and  clay,  which  is  ground  so 
fine  by  means  of  machinery  that  the  grains  of  dust  thus 
made  will  pass  through  a  sieve  which  has  ten  thousand 
holes  in  each  square  inch  of  its  surface.  When  the  proper 
rock  has  been  found  it  is  blasted  or  dug  out,  and  then  re- 
duced to  a  powder.     The  mixture  is  run  into  driers,  which 


124  ARTIFICIAL   STONE 

are  long  cylinders  of  steel  from  six  to  eight  feet  in  diame- 
ter. They  are  lined  with  fire  brick  and  are  heated  red  hot. 
They  are  turned  around  by  machinery,  and  are  so  inclined 
that,  as  they  turn,  the  cement  mixture  gradually  rolls  down 
over  the  hot  brick  until  all  the  moisture  has  been  removed 
from  it.  It  is  now  again  ground,  the  work  being  so  care- 
fully done  that  the  materials  of  which  the  powder  is  com- 
posed are  of  just  the  proper  proportions. 

In  making  concrete  this  powder  is  mixed  with  sand  and 
broken  stones,  and  water  is  poured  over  it.  The  mass  is 
turned  over  and  over  by  machinery  or  by  hand  until  every 
grain  of  the  sand  and  every  fragment  of  stone  are  covered 
with  a  film  of  the  cement  paste.  The  whole  is  now  packed 
together  in  blocks  or  molds  of  the  shapes  desired,  and 
when  it  hardens  it  has  all  the  qualities  of  stone  made  by 
nature.     It  is  in  fact  stone  cemented  together  by  man. 

It  is  of  such  stone  that  a  great  deal  of  our  modern  build- 
ing is  done.  Of  it  foundations  are  made,  great  columns 
erected,  and  the  pillars  which  support  our  mightiest  bridges 
are  built.  The  streets  of  many  of  our  cities  are  paved  with 
it  and  our  concrete  floors,  if  they  were  all  brought  together, 
would  cover  thousands  of  acres.  The  cement  employed  is 
in  such  demand  that  millions  of  barrels  are  annually  sold 
and  its  use  is  rapidly  increasing  from  year  to  year.  In- 
deed, some  of  our  new  homes  are  now  being  built  of  con- 
crete throughout,  and  not  a  few  of  them  have  walls  of  solid 
concrete.  Ornamental  work  of  this  material  is  largely 
used,  the  buildings  so  finished  looking  as  though  they  were 
decorated  with  stone  carvings. 

Another  form  of  artificial  stone  is  the  mortar  used  to 
unite  brickwork  and  other  masonry.     This  may  be  com- 


ARTIFICIAL   STONE 


125 


posed  of  certain  amounts  of  sand  and  lime  mixed  with 
water  in  such  a  way  that  it  can  be  spread  over  the  stones  or 
thrown  in  between  them ;  or  it  may  be  of  sand  and  Port- 
land cement  and  in  some  cases  of  plaster,  which  is  really  a 
form  of  lime.     The  lime-and-sand  mortar  is  not  so  hard  as 


Lime  kilr.s.  San   Juan 


D.   Puget  Sound. 


sandstone  and  is  less  durable.  Cement  mortar  is,  if  prop- 
erly made,  equal  to  stone  ;  whereas  plaster  is  much  softer 
and  is  used  chiefly  in  fine  work  and  in  places  not  exposed 
to  the  weather. 

Mortars  and  rock  cements  of  various  kinds  have  been 
used  for  building  as  far  back  as  man  can  remember.  The 
hufje  blocks  on  the  outside  of  the  Great  Pyramid  were 
laid  in  a  mixture  which  contained  _^ypsum  or  plaster  of 
Paris,  and  the  Colosseum  was  largely  of  concrete. 


126  ARTIFICIAL   STONE 

As  to  plaster  of  Paris  or  burnt  gypsum  this  was  a  part 
of  most  of  the  mortars  used  by  the  ancients.  Later  on  it 
was  employed  in  Europe,  and  a  curious  story  is  told  in 
connection  with  the  vast  beds  of  gypsum  which  lie  not  far 
from  Paris  as  to  how  a  Frenchman  discovered  its  value  as 
a  cementing  material.  One  night  a  shepherd  of  that 
region  cooked  his  supper  upon  a  fireplace,  which  he  made 
out  in  the  open,  of  blocks  from  these  gypsum  beds,  mixed 
with  the  other  rocks  lying  about.  His  fire  burned  the 
gypsum  to  plaster  of  Paris,  and,  as  he  was  about  to  leave,  a 
rain  came  on,  so  wetting  the  plaster  that  it  melted  and 
cemented  together  the  other  rocks  of  the  fireplace.  In 
this  way  gypsum  was  found  to  be  valuable,  and  the  Paris 
deposits  are  now  mined,  roasted,  and  ground  for  shipment 
all  over  Europe.  They  are  largely  employed  in  cements, 
and  in  making  plaster  casts,  including  statuary  of  all 
kinds,  and  also  in  decorating  the  interiors  of  buildings. 

In  burning  gypsum  rock  to  make  plaster  of  Paris,  the 
furnace  is  made  of  the  blocks  as  they  come  from  the 
quarry,  the  fuel  being  put  in  while  the  furnace  is  building. 
Wood,  coal,  or  coke  may  be  used,  the  smoke  going  off 
through  passages  made  for  the  purpose.  The  roasting 
lasts  for  ten  hours,  after  which  the  burned  pile  of  rocks 
cools  for  five  or  six  days,  when  it  is  ready  to  fall  into 
powder.  It  is  sometimes  beaten  fine  on  the  ground,  and 
sometimes  run  through  steel  mills  which  grind  it  to  plaster 
of  the  fineness  required. 

Excellent  gypsum  is  now  found  in  many  places.  France 
produces  a  great  deal,  but  still  more  is  mined  in  the 
United  States,  especially  in  New  York,  Ohio,  Michigan, 
and  Iowa. 


BRICK   STRUCTURES   OF   ANTIQUITY  127 


14.     BRICK    STRUCTURES    OF   ANTIQUITY 

"And  the  whole  earth  was  of  one  language  and  of  one  speech. 

"  And  it  came  to  pass,  as  they  journeyed  from  the  east,  that  they 
found  a  plain  in  the  land  of  Shinar ;  and  they  dwelt  there. 

'•  And  they  said  one  to  another,  Go  to,  let  us  make  brick,  and  burn 
them  thoroughly.  And  they  had  brick  for  stone,  and  slime  had  they 
for  mortar." 

WE  have  all  read  the  story  of  the  Tower  of  Babel,  of 
which  these  verses  from  the  Bible  are  the  beginning. 
It  was  started  by  the  Sons  of  Noah  and  it  is  related  that 
they  expected  to  build  it  up  to  Heaven,  when  they  were 
suddenly  stopped  by  the  confusion  of  tongues.  You  may 
read  all  about  it  in  the  Book  of  Genesis. 

That  was  more  than  four  thousand  years  ago,  and  we 
thus  see  that  man  had  even  then  learned  how  to  use  bricks 
of  burnt  clay  as  a  building  material.  The  walls  of  the 
great  city  of  Babylon  which  stood  on  the  Euphrates  not 
far  from  the  site  of  this  Tower  were  made  by  some  of  the 
descendants  of  these  builders.  Herodotus,  the  oldest 
Greek  historian,  tells  us  that  they  were  composed  of  the 
clay  dug  from  the  trenches  outside,  and  that  they  were 
burnt  bricks.  He  says  that  the  walls  were  fifty-five  miles 
long,  three  hundred  and  forty  feet  high,  and  eighty-five  feet 
in  thickness,  inclosing  a  city  of  wide  streets  with  houses  of 
three  or  four  stories  and  many  temples  and  palaces. 

For  centuries  Babylon  was  the  greatest  city  of  the 
world.  It  was  the  capital  of  King  Nebuchadnezzar,  who 
cast  the  three  Hebrews  into  the  fiery  furnace  and  who 
afterwards  went  mad  and  ate  grass.  Its  doom  was  fore- 
told by  the  handwriting  on  the  wall  during  the  days  of 


128  BRICK   STRUCTURES   OF  ANTIQUITY 

Belshazzar,  who  succeeded  Nebuchadnezzar.  A  little  after 
that  the  city  was  conquered  by  Cyrus  the  Persian  and 
Xerxes  robbed  the  temples  of  their  golden  statues  and 
treasures.  It  gradually  fell  into  ruins,  and  became  buried 
from  sight  by  the  dust  and  dirt  of  the  ages. 

Within  recent  times,  however,  men  have  dug  down 
under  the  soil  and  found  some  of  the  bricks  and  other 
materials  which  once  formed  a  part  of  the  city.  Many  of 
the  bricks  were  glazed  in  the  burning  and  their  colors  are 
red,  yellow,  and  blue  ;  they  are  as  bright  as  when  they 
were  made.  Some  of  the  burnt  ones  are  thirteen  inches 
square  and  three  inches  thick,  or  more  than  six  times  as 
large  as  the  common  red  brick  of  our  buildings.  The 
Babylon  bricks,  used  for  the  corners  of  the  walls,  were  tri- 
angular in  shape,  and  wedge-shaped  bricks  were  employed 
for  the  arches.  Some  of  those  found  have  the  signature 
of  Nebuchadnezzar  stamped  on  them,  and  from  the  marks 
on  others  we  can  tell  the  dates  of  many  of  the  temples  and 
palaces  of  that  great  city.  The  bricks  were  laid  up  in  clay 
mud,  lime  mortar,  and  bitumen,  and  some  in  hot  asphalt. 
Only  the  outside  of  the  walls  was  composed  of  them,  the 
interior  being  filled  with  sun-dried  brick  consisting  of  wet 
clay  kneaded  together  with  finely  chopped  straw. 

Bricks  made  of  sun-dried  clay  were  probably  employed 
for  building  long  before  man  learned  how  to  burn  bricks. 
Going  back  to  the  Bible  we  find  that  the  Israelites  were 
forced  to  make  such  bricks  in  the  days  of  Pharaoh.  In 
the  first  chapter  of  Exodus  we  read  :  — 

"  And  the  Egyptians  made  the  children  of  Israel  to  serve  with  rigor  : 
"  And  they  made  their  lives  hitter  with  hard  bondage  in  mortar,  and 
in  brick,  and  in  all  manner  of  service  in  the  field." 


BRICK   STRUCrURES   OF  ANTIQUITY 


129 


A  little  farther  on  it  is  related  how  Pharaoh  required 
them  to  gather  their  own  straw  from  the  fields,  and  not- 
withstanding this  to  make  as  many  bricks  a  day  as  when 
the  straw  was  furnished  them.     One  passage  is  :  — 

"  Ye  shall  no  more  give  the  people  straw  to  make  brick  as  hereto- 
fore :  let  them  go  and  gather  straw  for  themselves. 

"And  the  tale  [number]  of  the  bricks  which  they  did  make  heretofore, 
ye  shall  lay  upon  them." 

The  only  brick  material  in  Egypt  is  the  mud  of  the 
Nile ;  and  the  Israehtes  used  this  mud,  mixing  it  with 
straw  and  turning  it 
out  in  molds  or  shap- 
ing it  up  with  their 
hands  in  much  the 
same  way  as  bricks 
are  made  in  Egypt 
to-day.  The  houses 
of  the  common 
people  are  still  com- 
posed of  such  ma- 
terials, and  should 
we  go  to  Egypt  we 
might  find  here  and 
there  along  the  Val- 
ley of  the  Nile  shallow  pits  filled  with  mud  through  which 
water  buffaloes  are  being  driven  back  and  forth.  Some 
straw  is  thrown  into  the  mud,  and  after  a  time  this  goes 
through  it  so  that  when  it  is  taken  out  and  shaped  in  the 
molds,  the  straw  aids  in  holding  the  mud  together.  The 
bricks  are  put  out  in  the  sun  to  dry,  and  are  then  laid  up  in 
mud  mortar. 

CARI',  HOUSES  —  9  * 


"The  oniy  orick  material  m  Egypt  is  the  mud 
of  the  Nile." 


I30  BRICK   STRUCTURES   OF   ANTIQUITY 

Similar  brickmaking  goes  on  in  many  of  the  oases  of 
the  Sahara,  in  Persia  and  Arabia,  in  India,  and  in  other 
parts  of  the  globe  where  the  rains  are  not  frequent  and 
building  materials  are  scarce.  We  find  houses  of  sun- 
dried  bricks  in  Mexico  made  of  adobe,  and  the  remains 
of  adobe  houses  still  exist  in  Colorado,  Arizona,  New 
Mexico,  and  California  which  are  centuries  old.  Some 
of  them  are  more  than  three  hundred  years  old,  and 
nevertheless  are  still  used. 

But  suppose  we  cross  the  Pacific  Ocean  and  take  a  look 
at  some  of  the  brick  buildings  of  China.  Out  in  the  coun- 
try we  shall  find  huts  of  sun-dried  mud,  and  in  the  cities 
vast  numbers  of  buildings  made  of  bluish-gray  bricks,  be- 
ing roofed  with  tiles  of  the  same  material.  Almost  all  of 
the  cities  are  surrounded  by  brick  walls.  Peking  has  a 
wall  which  is  fortv  feet  high.  It  has  towers  at  the  corners 
and  here  and  there  along  the  great  structure ;  and  all  are 
composed  of  brick.  Standing  upon  this  wall  we  look  over 
a  city  containing  more  than  a  million  people,  the  most 
of  whom  live  in  brick  houses ;  and  off  at  one  side,  inside 
other  brick  walls,  are  the  palaces  of  the  Emperor  and  his 
family,  the  roofs  of  which  are  of  yellow  tiles,  as  smooth  as 
china,  which  shine  like  gold  under  the  sun. 

From  Peking  we  take  the  railroad  which  goes  northward 
through  the  Nankow  Pass  into  Mongolia  to  see  the  Great 
Wall  of  China.  After  a  few  hours'  ride  we  come  to  a 
mighty  wall  made  of  these  same  blue  bricks,  only  of  a  larger 
size.  The  wall  is  as  high  as  a  three-story  house  and  twice 
as  wide  as  the  ordinary  city  sidewalk.  We  see  it  climbing 
the  mountains  and  going  down  into  the  valleys,  extending 
on  and  on  as  far  as  our  eyes  can  reach.     It  begins  at  the 


BRICK   STRUCTURES   OF   ANTIQUITY 


131 


sea  and  runs  over  mountain  and  plain  along  the  border  of 
North  China  for  a  distance  greater  than  from  New  York  to 
the  Mississippi  River.  It  was  put  up  as  a  defense  against 
the  savage  people  who  lived  on  the  other  side  of  it,  some  parts 
having  been  built 
about  two  hundred 
years  before  Christ 
came. 

The  Great  Wall  is 
a  mass  of  earth  and 
stone  mixed  to- 
gether, and  faced  on 
each  side  with  gray 
or  slate-colored 
brick,  the  material 
between  being  so 
packed  that  the 
whole  is  in  most 
places  as  solid  as 
stone.  We  climb  to 
the  top  of  the  wall 
and,  walking  along 
it,  find  a  place  where 
the  mortar  has  crum- 
bled away  and  the 
bricks  have  come  loose.  T  lift  one  of  the  bricks.  It  weighs 
twenty  pounds,  or  about  as  much  as  some  of  our  baby  sis- 
ters;  and  measuring  it  we  find  that  it  is  fifteen  inches 
long,  seven  inches  wide,  and  over  three  inches  thick.  The 
greater  part  of  the  wall  is  made  of  such  bricks  and  it  is 
said  that  they  were  often  burned  at  clay  beds  miles  away 


I  lift  one  of  the  Lik 


132  BRICK   STRUCTURES   OF   ANTIQUITY 

and  carried  on  the  backs  of  sheep,  goats,  and  donkeys  up 
the  hills  to  the  masons  on  the  wall. 

Going  on  with  our  journey,  we  at  last  come  to  Italy,  a 
country  where  bricks  were  made  ages  ago.  They  were  in 
use  in  old  Rome  and  the  ruins  of  that  city  still  contain  many 
thin  bricks  of  red  clay.  If  we  would  see  these  bricks  in 
the  buildings  we  can  do  so  best  by  going  to  Naples  and 
out  to  Pompeii.  We  are  now  right  under  the  volcano  of 
Vesuvius,  out  of  whose  top  the  vapor  is  rising  in  clouds 
from  the  brimstone  fires  which  are  boiling  and  seething 
within.  It  is  more  than  nineteen  centuries  since  the  little 
city  in  which  we  are  standing  was  as  alive  as  any  of  our 
towns  of  to-day.  The  carpenters,  stone  cutters,  and 
masons  were  working  away.  New  houses  were  building, 
and  the  people  were  living  in  comfortable  homes  of  brick, 
stone,  and  marble.  Chariots  drawn  by  horses  were  going 
on  the  trot  through  the  stone-paved  streets,  the  wheels 
running  in  ruts  which  are  still  to  be  seen.  Here  and  there 
in  parts  of  the  city  the  children  were  playing  and  in  other 
places  they  were  going  to  school.  The  life  of  a  thriving 
town  was  in  active  operation,  when,  all  at  once,  Vesuvius 
burst  forth,  throwing  out  streams  of  molten  lava  which  in 
floods  of  fire  rolled  down  the  sides  of  the  mountain. 

At  the  same  time  the  air  was  so  filled  with  ashes  that 
the  sun  became  dim,  and  the  people  believed  an  age  of 
perpetual  night  had  set  in.  The  ashes  fell  on  Pompeii, 
and  continued  to  fall  until  it  was  buried  from  view.  Such 
of  the  people  as  could  escape  did  so,  but  over  two  thousand 
were  buried.  The  city  was  so  covered  that  no  signs  of 
houses,  theaters,  temples,  or  other  buildings  were  left.  It 
was  so  far  under  the  ashes  that  as  time  went  on   its  very 


BRICK   STRUCTURES   OF   ANTIQUITY  1 33 

existence  was  forgotten,  and  it  was  not  until  many  centu- 
ries later  that  men  began  to  dig  the  earth  away  and  find 
what  was  left. 

Since  then  a  great  part  of  Pompeii  has  been  uncovered, 
and  we  can  now  tell  just  what  kind  of  houses  the  people  of 
that  time  had  and  how  they  were  built.     We  stroll  in  and 


In  Pompeii,  Vesuvius  in  background. 

out  through  the  dwellings,  finding  brick  walls  here  and 
there.  Many  of  the  homes  were  plastered,  and  upon  the 
walls  are  paintings  in  the  brightest  of  colors.  There  are 
bathrooms  made  of  brick,  and  a  brick  bakery,  in  the  ovens 
of  which  were  found  loaves  of  bread,  when  the  earth  was 
dug  away.  Some  of  the  finer  houses  were  floored  with 
tiles  and  not  a  few  with  mosaic,  the  vestibule  of  one  having 
the  picture  of  a  dog  tugging  at  his  rope  and  trying  to  get 
loose.  Under  the  picture  are  the  words:  "  Cave  Canem  !" 
meaning,  "  Beware  of  the  dog  !  " 

Crossing  from  Naples  to  Algeria  in  Africa,  and  making 


134 


BRICK   STRUCTURES   OF  ANTIQUITY 


our  way  south  through  that  country,  we  find  not  far 
from  the  Desert  of  Sahara  a  half -buried  city  which  was 
larger  than  Pompeii.  This  was  Timgad,  a  thriving  colonial 
town  of    Imperial  Rome,  which  was  deserted,  allowed  to 

fall  into  ruins,  and 
finally  buried  by  the 
sand  and  dust  of 
the  desert  until  the 
greater  part  of  it 
had  disappeared. 
The  covering  is  now 
being  taken  off  and 
we  find  brick  houses 
there  much  like 
those  of  Pompeii. 
There  are  also  tem- 
ples and  dwell- 
ings  made  partly  of 
marble,  a  marble 
theater  and  forum, 
and  an  enormous 
bathhouse  of  burnt 
brick.  The  latter 
covered  almost  two 
acres,  and  was 
heated  by  fl  ues 
which  ran  under  its  floors.  It  had  large  swimming  pools 
and  hot  and  cold  plunges,  as  well  as  courts  where  the 
bathers  wrestled  and  played  games  of  various  kinds.  We 
sit  down  on  the  marble  seats  running  around  the  hall,  and 
try  to  imagine  how  the  little  boys  of  Timgad  enjoyed  them- 


"This  was  Timgad,  a  thriving  colonial  town 
of  Imperial  Rome." 


OUR   AMERICAN   BRICKYARDS  1 35 

selves  here  when  Europe  was  covered  with  woods  and  our 
ancestors  were  living  in  huts  and  sleeping  on  straw. 

It  was  the  Romans  who  first  carried  the  art  of  brickmak- 
ing  into  Germany  and  Great  Britain  ;  but  the  people  there 
seem  to  have  forgotten  it  as  soon  as  the  Romans  left.  It 
was  not  until  well  along  in  the  Middle  Ages  that  England 
began  to  build  houses  of  brick,  although  it  is  said  that  a 
few  bricks  were  molded  under  the  direction  of  Alfred  the 
Great.  During  the  reigns  of  Henry  the  Eighth  and 
Queen  Elizabeth,  there  were  many  brickyards,  and  from 
then  on  the  English  employed  bricks  as  a  building  mate- 
rial. They  were  using  them  when  our  country  was  first 
settled  ;  and  some  of  the  richer  of  the  colonists  brought 
burnt  bricks  across  the  Atlantic  Ocean  to  America  and 
built  houses  of  them. 


15.     OUR   AMERICAN  BRICKYARDS 

WE  need  not  travel  from  home  to  find  out  how 
bricks  are  made.  Our  own  country  uses  such  vast 
quantities  of  them  that  nearly  every  town  has  its  brick- 
yard. There  are  more  than  twelve  thousand  such  factories 
in  the  United  States,  and  they  turn  out  altogether  some- 
thing like  twenty-five  billion  bricks  every  year.  There  are 
single  yards  which  make  one  million  a  day,  and  others 
which  have  machines  that  will  turn  out  one  hundred  thou- 


Loading  brick  clay  with  a  steam  shovel. 


(136) 


Brick  kilns,  St.  Louis. 


OUR   AMERICAN   BRICKYARDS 


137 


sand  bricks  within  twenty-four  hours.     There  is  an  estab- 
lishment in  New  England  which  loads  its  clay  with  steam 
shovels  and  has  huge  traveling  cranes  to  carry  the  bricks 
from  one  place  to  another.     Its  brickmaking  machinery  is 
moved  by  electricity. 
The    bricks    we 
make  are   of   about 
one  hundred  differ- 
ent varieties.     They 
are  of  all  shapes  and 
sizes,  some  hard  and 
some    soft.     They 
are  of  many  colors, 
and     often     beauti- 
fully glazed.     Some 
kinds    are   used  for 
pavements,    and 
others  in   mantels 
and    ornamental 
work.     We  have 
pressed    brick,    fire 
brick,    and    vitrified 
brick.     The  fire 
brick  is  used  in  our  large  buildings  of  many  stories,  being 
put  in  between  the  beams  and  joists  to  make  them  fire- 
proof.    Vitrified  bricks  are  employed  in  street  paving  as 
well   as   for  other  purposes.     They  are  made  by  grinding 
up  hard  materials,  such  as  quartz,  spar,  shale,  and  fire  clay. 
Common  brick  is  composed  of  clay  of  various  kinds,  the 
character  of  the  product  as  a  building  material  depending 
largely  upon  the  clay  used.     The  clay  must  be  freed  from 


Hydraulic  brick  press. 


138 


OUR  AMERICAN   BRICKYARDS 


lumps,    and  ground    up   and  thoroughly   mixed.      If  the 
material  is  of  a  hard  nature,  it  is  first  ground,  and  after 


Molding  bricks  by  hand,  Mexico. 

that  passed  through  a  screen  into  a  pug  mill  or  mixer. 
This  contains  knives  by  which  it  is  cut  and  mixed  with 
water  until  it  is  just  right  for  bricks.  The  clay  goes 
from  the  pug  mill  into  the  brick  machines,  from  which 
it  comes  to  the  cutting  tables  through  a  die,  in  the  shape 


New  York  water  front.      More  than  half  of  the  visible  building  material 
is  architectural  terra  cotta. 


OUR   AMERICAiN    BRICKYARDS 


139 


of  clay  bars.  These 
bars  are  cut  into  bricks 
by  fine  steel  piano  wires, 
working  automatically. 
The  bricks  are  then 
carried  on  a  traveling 
belt  to  other  machines, 
which  square  their  cor- 
ners and  edges,  make 
them  smooth,  and  print 
upon  them  any  lettering 
desired. 

If  they  are  intended 
for  rough  brick,  they 
are  now  carried  on  to 
the  drier,  which  is  a 
series  of  tunnels  built  of 
brick,  and  heated  by  a 
furnace,  or  by  steam 
pipes  or  a  blower. 
These  tunnels  are  about 
four  feet  wide,  five  feet 
high,  and  one  hundred 
and  twenty  feet  long. 
The  mud  cubes  are 
taken  into  them  on  little 
cars,  and  they  remain 
there  for  twenty-four 
hours,  when  they  are 
thoroughly  dried.    Each  Terra  cotta  building. 

of  these  tunnels  will  hold  about  five  thousand  bricks  at  a  time. 


I40 


OUR  AMERICAN   BRICKYARDS 


When  the  bricks  come  from  the  tunnels,  they  are  ready 
for  burning.  This,  in  the  large  yards,  is  done  in  ovens, 
each  ten  or  twelve  feet  high  and  thirty  feet  in  diameter. 
After  the  bricks  have  been  piled  up  in  the  ovens  an  intense 
heat  is  admitted  by  blowing  in  the  air  from  the  furnaces, 
which  are  so  hot  that  the  draft  bathes  the  interior  of  each 


TTJ  1  -y  .^-)f 


The  Witch  Doctor  (terra  cotta).  School  of  Medicine, 
University  of  Pittsburgh. 

oven  with  a  solid  sheet  of  twisting  flames,  turning  the  clay 
to  a  red  or  white  heat.  The  bricks  are  kept  under  this 
heat  for  from  a  week  to  ten  days,  when  the  fires  are  with- 
drawn, and  they  are  allowed  to  cool. 

In  other  brickyards  where  the  clay  is  of  a  different  na- 
ture it  is  first  o:round  and  mixed  with  water.  It  is  then 
pressed  into  wooden  molds,  and  from  them  goes  on  to  the 
driers  and  the  kilns.  In  the  smaller  brickyards  the  clay  is 
sometimes  mixed  in  a  pug  mill  moved  by  horse  power      It 


OUR   AMERICAN   BRICKYARDS  I4I 

is  then  molded  by  hand  in  rough  wooden  molds  of  the  size 
and  shape  of  the  brick  desired.  Such  bricks  are  often 
dried  out  in  sheds  and  then  placed  in  kilns  for  firing. 
After  ten  or  fifteen  days  the  fires  are  allowed  to  go  down, 
and  the  bricks  are  ready  for  the  markets.  In  the  ovens 
wood  or  coal  or  even  oil  may  be  burned. 

It  is  in  much  the  same  way  that  the  terra  cotta  employed 
for  ornamenting  our  buildings  is  made,  save  that  the  mix- 
ing and  burning  the  clay  must  be  more  carefully  done. 
In  making  tiles  the  clay  comes  out  in  thin  bands  which 
are  cut  by  wires  and  then  pressed  into  any  shape  that  may 
be  desired.  Curved  roofing  tiles  are  often  formed  by  bend- 
ing the  clay  by  hand  over  a  leather  saddle,  the  nail  holes 
being  punched  in  by  hand.  The  tiles  which  are  so  beauti- 
fully glazed  are  taken  out  when  half  burned,  and  dipped 
into  a  mixture  which,  when  they  are  fired  again,  gives  the 
beautiful  glass  colored  effects  that  we  see  in  fine  roofing. 

The  tiles  for  mantels,  hearths,  and  for  the  walls  and 
floors  of  bathrooms  are  made  in  much  the  same  way.  The 
fronts  of  buildings  are  often  decorated  with  tiles.  Some 
of  the  finest  of  such  buildings  are  in  Italy,  one  of  which, 
known  as  the  Hospital  of  the  Innocents,  has  a  decoration 
of  round  tiles,  each  of  which  represents  a  beautiful  baby. 
This  design  was  made  by  Andrea  della  Robbia,  who  was 
alive  at  the  time  America  was  discovered.  Much  terra 
cotta  is  now  similarly  used  in  ornamenting  our  public 
buildings,  great  figures  like  that  of  the  Witch  Doctor  on 
the  University  of  Pittsburgh  being  made  of  it. 

The  ovens  or  kilns  for  terra  cotta  and  tiles  have  an  in- 
tense heat,  the  hot  air  coming  in  at'  the  top  and  going 
down  through  the  clay.     In  some  of  the  ovens  the  tem- 


142  IRON 

perature  is  said  to  reach  twenty-five  hundred  degrees 
Fahrenheit,  a  heat  so  intense  that  we  cannot  comprehend 
it.  Indeed,  the  fuel  used  in  brick  and  tile  making  costs 
many  times  as  much  as  the  clay  itself,  while  the  other  ma- 
terials which  are  sometimes  mixed  with  the  clay  often  cost 
more  than  the  clay. 


A  tile  from  the  Hospital 
of  the  Innocents,  Flor- 
ence. 


i6.     IRON 


HAVE  you  ever  thought  what  an  important  part  iron  has 
in  our  homes  }  It  forms  the  basis  of  the  whole  build- 
ing industry.  From  it  are  made  all  kinds  of  machinery,  and 
every  sort  of  hand  tool.  It  gives  us  the  ax  and  saw  of  the 
lumberman,  the  hatchet  and  plane  of  the  carpenter,  and 
the  hammer  and  trowel  of  the  mason.  From  it  come  the 
nails  and  screws  which  hold  our  dwellings  together,  the 
hinges  upon  which  the  doors  swing  back  and  forth,  and  the 
locks  which  close  them  at  night.  Many  of  our  homes  are 
roofed  with  sheets  of  iron,  coated  with  tin  or  zinc.  Some 
of  them  are  plastered  on  iron  lathing,  and  some  have  steel 
ceiUngs   and   floors.      Moreover,  the   largest  of  our  city 


IRON 


143 


buildings,  as  we  shall  see  later,  are  almost  altogether  of 
steel.  They  have  a  framework  of  steel,  and  contain  Httle 
else  than  things  made  of  that  metal,  excepting  the  stone, 
brick,  and  plaster  used  as  a  coating  to  keep  out  the  weather 
and  preserve  the  iron  from  rust. 

We  warm  ourselves  over  iron  stoves,  or  perhaps  over 
iron  radiators  through  which  steam  or  hot  water  flows  from 
an  iron  boiler  on  the  floor  below.  Our  meals  are  cooked 
■  upon  iron  stoves  fed  with  coal  by  iron  shovels  and  stirred 
with  iron  pokers.  The  water  for  our  baths  is  made  hot  by 
such  stoves,  and  in  many  of  our  dwellings  it  is  carried 
through  iron  pipes  to  a  bathtub  of  iron,  coated  with  a 
white  enamel,  which  makes  it  look  like  china.  We  sleep 
at  night  upon  steel  springs,  and  that  we  may  rest  the  bet- 
ter screen  our  windows  with  iron  wire  cloth  to  keep  out 
the  flies  and  mosquitoes. 

Can  you  imagine  a  world  without  iron  ?  If  we  had  none 
at  all,  machinery  of  all  kinds  would  soon  disappear,  our  oc- 
cupations would  change,  and  all  sorts  of  mechanical  labor, 
as  we  know  it,  would  vanish.  We  should  have  to  go  back 
to  hunting  with  bows  and  arrows ;  to  plowing  with  forked 
sticks  ;  or  to  grazing  sheep  and  cattle  for  a  livelihood.  If 
we  wished  to  travel  on  land  we  should  have  to  walk,  or 
ride  upon  horses,  donkeys,  or  mules,  or  on  carts  drawn  by 
them  ;  and  if  we  went  by  water,  it  would  be  in  dugouts, 
canoes,  or  saiHng  ships,  although  it  is  doubtful  whether 
ships  could  be  made  without  this  metal  to  put  them  to- 
gether. Our  houses  would  dwindle  to  huts  roofed  with 
thatch  or  to  the  other  rude  shelters  dwelt  in  by  half-civi- 
lized peoples.  Indeed,  it  is  impossible  to  conceive  how 
[)()or  a  world  without  iron  would  be. 


144 


IRON 


It  is,  therefore,  no  wonder  that  the  mining  of  iron  ore 
and  the  making  of  iron  and  steel  and  the  things  derived 
from  them  have  become  about  the  most  important  of  in- 
dustries. They  are  more  or  less  carried  on  in  all  civilized 
lands ;    and  especially   where   the  people    have    the    m?  • 


The  Hanyang  iron  works  in  central  China. 

terials  and  skill  needed  for  them.  In  this  respect  the 
United  States  is  ahead  of  all  other  countries.  We  have 
vast  iron  deposits  in  many  parts  of  the  Union,  and  also 
the  coal  and  limestone  needed  to  mix  with  the  ore  for 
making  pig  iron.  We  have  more  than  fourteen  thousand 
different  establishments,  which  are  engaged  upon  the 
various  manufactures  of  iron  and  steel,  and   our   capital 


IRON  145 

employed  in  such  industries  amounts  to  several  billions  of 
dollars.  We  have  about  one  million  men  who  are  always 
working  upon  such  manufactures.  They  are  paid  every 
year  something  like  five  hundred  million  dollars  in  wages, 
and  their  annual  product  sells  for  over  two  billion  dollars. 
We  may  appreciate  these  amounts  better  when  we  con- 
sider that  the  money  paid  for  wages  is  enough  to  give 
each  man,  woman,  and  child  in  the  United  States  a  pres- 
ent of  five  dollars  every  Christmas  ;  and  that  if  we  had 
to  buy  an  equal  share  of  the  iron  goods  made  in  one 
year  we  should  need  twenty  dollars  apiece  to  make  the 
purchase. 

But  before  we  go  to  the  mines,  let  us  have  a  little  talk 
as  to  how  iron  was  used  in  the  past.  We  cannot  tell  when 
it  was  discovered ;  but  from  Genesis,  the  first  book  of  the 
Bible,  we  know  that  Tubal  Cain,  who  lived  several  thou- 
sand years  before  Christ,  was  not  only  a  worker  in  iron, 
but  that  he  taught  others  how  to  make  things  of  iron  and 
brass.  All  through  the  Bible  iron  is  mentioned.  It  was 
used  for  plows,  swords,  and  chariots ;  and  for  tools  of  va- 
rious kinds,  including  those  employed  in  house-building. 
We  know  that  the  ancient  Egyptians  had  some  knowledge 
of  the  metal,  for  a  piece  of  iron  has  been  found  in  the 
Great  Pyramid,  and  Herodotus  tells  us  that  iron  tools  were 
used  in  making  that  structure.  The  Greeks  had  iron  long 
before  the  Christian  era,  and  the  Romans  had  various  tools 
of  that  metal.  During  the  Middle  Ages  and  especially  at 
the  time  of  the  Crusades,  steel,  which  as  we  shall  see  later 
is  only  one  form  of  iron,  was  so  well  known  that  lances 
and  armor  for  both  men  and  horses  were  made  of  it.  The 
warriors  went  to  battle  clad  in  iron  and  some  wore,  under 

CARP.  HOUSES — 10 


146  IRON 

their  armor,  shirts  of  fine  steel  links,  so  skillfully  joined 
that  they  fitted  the  body  as  though  knitted  together. 

As  to  Asia,  we  find  that  the  people  there  have  been  ac- 
quainted with  iron  so  long  that  they  cannot  tell  when  it 
first  came  into  use.  Near  Delhi  in  Hindustan,  I  have 
seen  one  of  the  oldest  of  all  iron  monuments.     It  is  an 


Iron  dome  of  the  Porcelain  Pagoda  now  used  as  a  fountain. 

iron  column  which  is  supposed  to  have  been  erected  as  a 
pillar  of  victory  by  some  warlike  people  who  fought  in 
India  over  two  thousand  years  ago.  It  is  as  big  around  as 
a  flour  barrel ;  it  rises  twenty-three  feet  above  the  ground 
and  is  sunk  many  feet  below  it.  It  is  in  the  mosque 
known  as  the  Kutab  Minar, 

You  may  have  read  of  the  Porcelain  Pagoda  which  the 
Chinese  built  during  the  same  century  that  Columbus  dis- 


IRON  147 

covered  America,  It  was  situated  at  Nanking,  near  the 
Yangtze  River.  That  tower  had  a  dome  of  cast  iron.  The 
structure  below  the  dome  was  of  porcelain  bricks  as 
smooth  as  the  finest  of  china.  It  had  eight  sides  and  nine 
stories  and  it  rose  to  a  height  nearly  half  that  of  the  Wash- 
ington Monument.  At  every  one  of  the  stories  were  little 
metal  bells  hanging  to  the  rafters,  which  extended  beyond 
the  walls  in  such  a  way  that  they  tinkled  when  sway;ed  by 
the  wind.  The  iron  dome,  plated  with  gold,  could  be  seen 
for  miles  up  and  down  the  valley  of  the  Yangtze  River. 
The  Porcelain  Tower  was  thrown  down  at  the  time  of  a 
great  rebellion  and  its  beautiful  bricks  have  disappeared. 
The  iron  dome  is  still  in  existence,  and  I  photographed  it 
during  one  of  my  recent  visits  to  China.  It  is  now  used 
as  a  fountain,  having  been  turned  upside  down  and  set 
into  a  foundation  of  marble.  That  mass  of  iron  is  so  large 
that  it  would  cover  the  biggest  haystack,  and  it  might 
make  a  fine  bathtub  for  an  elephant. 

It  is  interesting  to  know  something  about  the  first  use  of 
iron  in  our  own  country.  When  our  forefathers  landed, 
the  Indians  had  no  tools  or  weapons  made  of  this  metal, 
and  it  is  probable  that  they  were  not  acquainted  with  its 
value.  The  white  men,  however,  soon  began  to  prospect 
for  ores,  and  as  their  settlements  increased  iron  deposits 
were  discovered  here  and  there  not  far  back  from  the 
coast.  They  began  to  use  the  iron,  and  erected  little  fur- 
naces and  smelting  works,  as  well  as  rude  forges  and  mills. 
In  these  they  made  tools  and  building  materials  of  various 
kinds,  although  England  forbade  them  to  do  so,  as  she 
wanted  them  to  buy  all  such  things  from  her. 

After  our  War  of  Independence  the  iron  industry  rapidly 


148 


IRON 


Iron  works.  Pittsburgh. 


developed,  and  in  18 10  we  produced  over  six  million  dol- 
lars' worth  of  iron  of  various  kinds,  of  which  about  one 
third  came  from  Pennsylvania.  At  the  same  time  we 
began  to  make  steel,  and  from  then  on  our  production  of 
these  articles  was  so  rapid  that  we  soon  became  one  of 
the  leading  iron  countries  of  the  world,  and  within  recent 
years  have  far  surpassed  any  of  the  others. 

But  what  is  this  metal  that  has  so  much  to  do  with  our 
shelter,  and  with  almost  everything  that  we  make  or  use.'' 
Iron  ore  exists  in  many  minerals  and  rocks,  and  sometimes 
gives  a  red  or  yellow  color  to  the  soil.  The  earth  washings 
often  contain  so  much  iron  that  they  discolor  the  streams. 
The  water  takes  up  small  particles  of  the  ore  just  as  it 
takes  up  salt  or  sugar,  and  as  it  goes  on  through  the 
earth  it  drops  some  here  and  there.  It  is  from  such 
droppings  that  the  iron  deposits  which  are  mined  have 
been  formed. 


IRON 


149 


As  to  the  metal  itself  we  shall  have  no  trouble  in  finding 
good  specimens  of  it.  It  is  kept  in  every  hardware  store 
or  blacksmith  shop  in  the  shape  of  things  made  of  cast 
iron,  wrought  iron,  and  steel.  Each  of  these  is  composed 
chiefly  of  iron  but  all  differ  in  many  ways,  according  to 
the  treatment  the  metal  receives  after  it  is  taken  out  of 
the  ore.  Cast  iron  is  hard,  and  breaks  easily.  It  can  be 
melted  but  not  bent,  forged,  or  welded.  A  broken  stove 
lid  or  any  other  casting  will  show  us  its  nature.  Wrought 
iron  is  comparatively  soft,  and  it  can  be  twisted  and  bent 
again  and  again  without  breaking.  It  may  be  welded  and 
pounded  or  forged,  but  it  will  not  melt  except  under  great 
heat.  This  is  the  character  of  the  horseshoe  which  the 
smith  shapes  so  that  it  will  just  fit  the  hoof,  or  of  soft 
wrought  iron  wire,  which  bends  so  easily  that  one  can 
tie  it  into  a  knot.  Steel  can  also  be  welded  and  forged. 
Moreover,  it  can  be  melted,  and,  by  tempering,  can  be 
made  hard  or  soft  as  desired ;  it  can  be  made  so  hard  that 
it  will  cut  through 
wrought  iron  with. 
ease. 

From  cast  iron, 
wrought  iron,  and 
steel,  and  combina- 
tions of  them,  tools, 
machinery,  and  build- 
ing materials  are 
made.  They  all  come 
from  the  ore,  being 
produced  through 

different    methods    of  in  a  blast  furnace,   Pittsburgh. 


ISO 


MINING   IRON 


smelting  and  of  treating  it,  after  it  has  been  mined.  We 
shall  learn  more  of  this  as  we  visit  the  mills  and  the 
furnaces. 


oj<«o 


17.    MINING   IRON 

THE  first  of  our  journeys  will  be  to  see  the  ore  in  the 
mines.  Where  shall  we  go  ?  We  have  beds  of  iron 
ore  scattered  throughout  the  Union,  and  the  mineral  exists 
to  a  greater  or  less  extent  in  all  of  the  states.  It  is  com- 
mercially mined  in 
twenty-six  or 
more  states ;  and 
we  have  some  re- 
gions where  it  is 
found  in  such  abun- 
dance that  thou- 
sands of  men  are 
kept  busy  taking  it 
out  of  the  earth  and 
loading  the  cars  and 
ships  which  carry  it 
to  the  smelters. 
The  richest  and 
most  extensive  of 
these  deposits  lie 
around  the  southern 
and  western  sides  of 
Lake  Superior,  in 
Michigan,  Wisconsin,  and  Minnesota.  They  are  found  in 
little  ranges  of  mountains  from  fifteen  to  one  hundred 


Inside  of  a  Michigan  ore  mine. 


MINING   IKON 


151 


miles  back  from  the  lake  and  so  high  above  it  that  the  ore 
can  be  taken  by  gravity  down  to  the  vessels.  For  this 
purpose  railroads  have  been  built,  and  the  ore  cars  from 
the  mines  are  carried  out  upon  trestle  works,  connected 
with  which  are  huge  bins  or  pockets  into  which  the  ore 
is  dropped.  These  pockets  are  high  above  the  decks 
of  the  ships  as  they  anchor  for  loading,  and  by  opening 
them  the  ore  falls  through  chutes  right  into  the  holds. 


The  steam  shovel  is  really  a  great  dipper. 

Some  of  the  ore  about  Lake  Superior  lies  near  the  sur- 
face, being  covered  only  with  a  thin  skin  of  earth  and  rock. 
In  such  places  the  earth  is  taken  off  by  steam  shovels,  and 
hauled  away  on  the  cars.  The  ore  itself  is  then  broken 
and  loosened  by  blasting,  and  great  shovels  do  the  loading. 
This  is  open  pit  mining,  and  it  is  an  interesting  sight.  The 
steam  shovel  is  really  a  great  steel  dipper  or  scoop  fastened 
to  a  long  arm  or  handle  attached  to  a  steam  engine  on 
wheels.     The  dipper  is  about  as  big  around  as  a  hogshead. 


152  MINING   IRON 

It  has  big  steel  teeth  on  one  side  of  its  rim  which  cut  into 
the  ore,  and  its  bottom  is  so  arranged  that  it  can  be  dropped, 
allowing  the  contents  to  fall  out.  The  engine  raises  and 
lowers  and  moves  the  shovel  about  as  the  engineer  wills. 
The  engineer  pulls  a  lever  and  the  great  teeth  go  down 
into  the  ore,  taking  a  mouthful  of  five  tons  at  one  bite. 
Another  lever  is  pulled  and  the  arm  rises  and  carries  the 
ylpad  around  until  it  hangs  over  the  car  on  the  track.  A 
third  motion  and  the  bottom  or  underjaw  of  the  shovel 
drops,  and  the  ore  falls  into  the  car.  The  work  is  so  rapid 
that  one  shovel  can  do  as  much  as  several  hundred  men, 
laboring  without  it,  and  a  car  of  fifty  tons  can  be  loaded 
within  a  very  few  minutes.  A  single  shovel  sometimes 
loads  two  thousand  tons  in  one  day. 

Different  methods  must  be  employed  for  ore  which  lies 
far  underground.  In  such  mines  shafts  or  pits  are  sunk 
through  the  earth  to  the  ore  beds,  and  tunnels  are  dug 
and  blasted  out  into  them.  The  miners  take  up  the  ore 
and  load  it  upon  little  steel  cars  which  are  carried  to  the 
surface  on  elevators  or  by  wire  ropes  and  dumped  into 
other  cars  which  take  it  down  to  the  steamer.  The  finest 
of  machinery  is  employed  in  such  mines.  They  are 
lighted  by  electricity,  and  compressed  air  and  steam  work 
the  pumps,  drills,  and  hoists. 

The  transportation  of  the  ore  from  the  mines  down  the 
lakes  to  the  places  where  it  is  turned  into  iron  and  steel  is 
another  great  industry.  It  employs  so  many  vessels,  dur- 
ing the  eight  warmer  months  when  the  lakes  are  not 
frozen,  that  the  tonnage  they  carry  in  that  time  is  greater 
than  that  which  comes  into  any  ocean  port  of  the  world  in 
a  whole  year. 


MINING   IRON 


153 


The  vessels  are  built  especially  for  the  traffic,  and  some 
are  of  great  size.  To  give  an  idea  of  their  loads  I  may 
say  that  if  you  should  fill  a  business  street  fifty  feet  wide, 
for  four  hundred  feet,  or  almost  one  block,  up  to  the  tops 
of  the  second  story  windows  with  solid  ore,  it  could  not 
hold  more  than  one  big  steamer's  cargo.  Some  of  the 
ships  take  twelve  thousand  tons  at  a  time,  and  altogether 
the  amount  carried  down  in  one   season  weighs  tens  of 


Cleveland  ore  docks. 

milUons  of  tons.  A  large  part  of  this  ore  goes  through 
Lake  Michigan  to  Chicago,  Gary,  and  Milwaukee,  but 
the  greater  part  goes  to  the  ports  of  Lake  Erie,  or  to 
places  in  the  interior  where  the  furnaces  and  smelting 
works  are. 

But  why  is  the  ore  taken  such  long  distances  before  it  is 
smelted  ?  One  would  think  it  would  be  cheaper  to  make 
the  iron  right  at  the  mines.  It  might  be- so  if  nothing  more 
than  the  ore  were  needed  in  the  manufacture  of  iron.  It 
is  necessary,  however,  to  have  two  other  ingredients  to  mix 


154  MINING   IRON 

with  the  ore  in  the  furnaces  in  order  to  get  the  iron  out  of 
the  ore.  These  are  coal  and  limestone.  Now  there  are 
no  great  coal  beds  near  the  Lake  Superior  mines,  and  it 
has  been  found  cheaper  to  carry  the  iron  down  the  lakes 
to  the  coal  than  to  carry  the  coal  to  the  iron.  There  are 
great  coal  deposits  in  Pennsylvania,  West  Virginia,  and 
Ohio,  and  plenty  of  limestone  as  well,  so  that  in  those 
states  the  smelting  can  be  done  cheaply.  Therefore  large 
smelting  and  iron  manufacturing  industries  have  grown  up 
in  Cleveland,  Pittsburgh,  and  at  other  cities  which  are 
within  easy  reach  of  the  coal  and  limestone.  For  similar 
reasons  Milwaukee  and  Chicago  have  large  smelting  works. 

We  have,  however,  some  places  which  have  extensive 
deposits  of  iron,  with  coal  and  limestone  hard  by.  Such, 
for  instance,  are  the  conditions  about  Birmingham,  Ala- 
bama, where  great  smelters  have  been  built  for  reducing 
the  ore.  The  iron,  there,  lies  close  to  the  surface  of  the 
earth,  and  is  taken  out  through  tunnels  which  are  driven 
into  the  sides  of  the  mountains. 

Suppose  we  enter  one  of  the  mines.  There  is  a  railroad 
running  down  into  it,  and  we  get  on  the  car  with  a  group 
of  sooty  miners  going  to  work.  As  we  step  out  at  one 
of  the  levels  our  guide  hands  us  candles,  and  shows  us  the 
bed  or  vein  of  ore  they  are  mining.  It  is  a  sandwich  of 
gray  iron  stone  between  walls  of  slate  and  other  rock. 
It  ranges  in  width  from  eight  to  twenty-four  feet,  and 
slants  as  it  goes  downward. 

As  we  move  along  we  hear  the  boom,  boom,  boom  of 
the  blasting  powder.  The  miners  are  drilling  holes  in  the 
rock,  and  putting  in  dynamite  sticks,  to  which  long  fuses 
are  fastened.     As  they  light  the  fuses  the  men  warn  us 


MINING   IRON  155 

to  run,  and  we  barely  reach  a  safe  place  before  an  explo- 
sion occurs.  The  earth  shakes  and  the  air  so  quivers  that 
it  blows  out  our  candles.  Returning  we  find  that  a  great 
mass  of  ore  has  been  loosened  and  broken  in  pieces.  It 
will  now  be  loaded  on  the  cars,  and  in  a  short  time  will  be 
on  its  way  to  the  surface. 

But  before  leaving  the  mine  let  us  take  a  look  at  the 
ore.  It  is  sometimes  called  iron  stone,  and  seems  just 
Hke  stone  save  that  it  is  heavier  than  any  rock  we  have 
handled  before.  It  shines  where  it  has  been  broken  and  is 
of  a  silver-gray  color.  In  other  mines  the  ore  is  red,  brown, 
or  of  a  yellowish  hue. 

In  some  of  the  iron  deposits  the  ore  lies  in  the  shape  of 
nuggets  or  lumps,  and  in  others  in  the  form  of  a  powder  or 
in  beds  of  black  sand.  We  might  collect  all  the  varieties 
together,  and  if  we  knew  nothing  about  the  processes  of 
getting  the  iron  out  of  the  ore  we  could  not  use  it  for 
building.  It  is  true  we  might  be  able  to  pile  lumps  of  the 
iron  stone  one  on  top  of  another,  and  b^'  using  mortar  or 
cement  put  them  together  in  walls,  or  we  perhaps  might 
mix  the  black  sand  with  cement  in  making  concrete,  but 
otherwise  we  could  do  nothing. 

Iron  is  never  pure  as  it  lies  in  the  earth,  although  in 
Greenland  a  ledge  of  almost  pure  volcanic  iron  is  known 
to  exist,  and  some  of  the  meteors  which  have  fallen  upon 
our  planet  are  of  iron  and  nickel.  The  iron  from  the 
mines  is  always  mixed  with  rocks  and  other  minerals,  and 
often  to  such  an  extent  that  it  would  cost  too  much  to 
extract  it.  It  is  only  through  the  machinery  and  pro- 
cesses of  taking  the  metal  out  of  the  ore,  which  man  has 
discovered,  that  iron  has  become  of  value  to  us. 


156  IN   THE   FURNACES  AND   ROLLING   MILLS 

18.    IN  THE  FURNACES  AND   ROLLING  MILLS 

WE  have  left  the  mines  and  are  about  to  visit  the 
great  smelting  works  where  the  metal  is  taken  out 
of  the  ore  and  reduced  to  pig  iron.  On  all  sides  of  us 
are  huge  furnaces,  great  black  pipes  of  iron  lined  with  fire 
brick.  They  rise  upward  for  a  hundred  or  more  feet  and 
where  hottest  are  surrounded  by  chambers  through  which 
cold  water  flows.  They  have  machinery  for  hoisting  and 
filling  them,  on  their  sides  and  their  tops.  Connected  with 
each  furnace  are  gigantic  stoves  through  which  the  blast 
of  air  passes  before  it  is  blown  into  the  furnace  to  increase 
the  heat  of  the  coke  burning  within.  There  are  also  tall 
smokestacks,  almost  kissing  the  clouds,  which  furnish  the 
draft ;  and  shedlike  buildings  through  which  the  blazing 
stream  of  molten  iron  flows  as  it  comes  out  to  be  molded 
to  pigs. 

All  about  the  furnaces  are  huge  heaps  of  ore,  limestone, 
and  coke.  The  coke  has  come  from  coal  which  has  for 
days  been  so  roasted  in  ovens  that  the  gases  and  other 
impurities  have  been  cooked  out  of  it,  and  it  is  now  of  the 
right  nature  to  furnish  the  intense  heat  needed  for  smelt- 
ing. Coke  is  much  lighter  than  coal.  We  can  find  some 
at  any  gas  works,  the  gas  having  been  taken  out  of  the 
coal  that  it  might  be  used  for  lighting  our  houses. 

As  we  look  at  the  furnaces  we  hear  the  din  of  machinery. 
Cars  and  other  conveyers  are  traveling  to  the  tops  of  each 
huge  pipe  and  dropping  their  loads  into  its  mouth.  They 
are  taking  up  masses  of  the  iron  ore,  limestone,  and  coke, 
and  letting  them  fall  so  that  they  lie  in  the  furnace  one  on 
top  of  another.      The  men  know  just  how  much  of  each  to 


IX  THE   FURNACES   AND   ROLLING   MILLS 


157 


use,  and  just  how  all  should  be  fed.  Additional  supplies 
are  put  in  every  few  moments,  so  that  about  six  hundred 
tons  of  these  materials  are  consumed  every  four  hours. 
In  this  time  one  hundred  tons  or  more  of  pig  or  cast  iron 
are  made,  the  larger  furnaces  often  producing  as  much  as 
six  hundred  tons  in  one  day. 

The  furnace  is  not  allowed  to  grow  cool  from  the  time  it 
is  lighted.  The 
great  heat  is  main- 
tained day  and  night 
all  the  year  through, 
and  running  water 
is  kept  flowing 
through  the  hollow 
chambers  about  it 
to  prevent  the  heat 
from  melting  the 
walls.  The  tem- 
perature is  so  high 
that  the  iron  ore  and 
limestone  soon  melt 
into  a  fiery  molasses- 


Tapping  a 


like  mixture,  and  the  whole  mass  turns  to  a  fluid,  which  blazes 
and  seethes  and  boils  as  the  hot  blast  rushes  through  it. 

After  a  short  time  gravitation  begins  to  pull  the  different 
elements  of  the  liquid  apart.  The  iron  is  the  heaviest, 
and  gradually  it  sinks  to  the  bottom,  while  the  other  ma- 
terials, comprising  the  limestone  and  everything  which 
is  not  iron,  float  above.  By  and  by  the  iron  has  all  settled 
in  the  lowest  part  of  the  furnace,  and  the  slag,  which  is 
the  name  given  to  the  other  materials,  lies  on  top. 


158 


IN  THE   FURNACES   AND    ROLLING   MILLS 


The  furnace  is  now  ready  for  tapping.  The  first  opening 
is  a  hole  just  above  the  level  of  the  liquid  iron,  in  order 
that  the  slag  may  flow  off.  It  comes  forth  in  a  blazing 
torrent  of  yellow,  sputtering  and  sending  out  sparks,  and 
falls  down  upon  the  deep  sand  of  the  furnace  floor,  where 


■'  See  the  golden  stream  of  molten  metal  come  out." 

little  ditches  have  been  cut  at  such  a  slope  that  they  carry 
it  off. 

Now  the  slag  has  disappeared,  and  another  hole  at  the 
bottom  of  the  furnace  is  opened  to  let  out  the  iron  itself. 
See  the  golden  stream  of  molten  metal  come  out.  It 
blazes  and  bubbles  and  sends  up  sparks  like  a  skyrocket 
as  it  runs  down  through  the  sand.  It  is  so  hot  that  it 
almost  blisters  our  faces,  and  we  step  back  for  fear  the 


IN   THE   FURNACES   AND    ROLLING   MILLS  159 

sparks  may  fall  on  our  feet.  It  continues  to  flow,  winding 
its  way  through  the  channel  made  for  it,  until  it  enters 
a  great  bed  or  garden  of  sand.  This  is  cut  up  into  short 
ditches,  each  a  little  more  than  three  feet  in  length,  three 
or  four  inches  wide,  and  of  a  little  less  depth.  They  are 
the  molds  for  the  pigs.  After  the  iron  flows  into  them  it 
rapidly  cools ;  it  grows  darker  and  darker ;  and  its  color 
changes,  until  it  finally  turns  a  blue  gray.  It  hardens  as 
it  cools,  and  after  a  time,  when  the  heat  is  all  gone,  the 
pigs  are  taken  out  and  piled  up  until  needed  for  the  mak- 
ing of  steel  or  for  shipment  to  the  markets. 

The  manufacture  of  pig  iron  is  now  carried  on  in  many 
parts  of  the  world.  It  has  long  been  one  of  the  chief  in- 
dustries of  those  countries  of  Europe  which  have  iron 
deposits,  and  within  recent  years  extensive  smelting  works 
have  been  erected  in  Japan,  China,  India,  and  in  some 
other  parts  of  Asia.  In  the  United  States,  the  industry 
is  greater  than  anywhere  else,  and  we  are  now  smelting 
about  half  of  all  the  pig  iron  produced  by  the  world. 
We  make  so  much  every  year  that  it  has  been  estimated 
that  it  would  take  a  train  of  cars  reaching  halfway 
around  the  globe  to  carry  the  load,  and  that  if  it  were  all 
made  into  telephone  wire  it  might  form  a  line  from  the 
earth  to  the  sun.  Tens  of  thousands  of  people  are  engaged 
in  the  industry,  and  the  annual  product  has  a  value  of 
several  hundred  millions  of  dollars. 

Pig  iron  is  the  raw  material  for  making  all  other  iron 
and  steel.  It  is  hard  and  brittle,  and  it  may  be  used  for 
rough  castings,  such  as  stoves  and  other  things  which  are 
to  receive  hard  usage  and  which  can  be  easily  made  by 
running  the  liquid  iron  into  molds. 


l6o  IN  THE   FURNACES   AND    ROLLING   MILLS 

As  the  pig  iron  comes  from  the  furnaces  it  contains 
many  impurities,  which  must  be  taken  out  before  it  can  be 
made  into  wrought  iron  or  steel.  In  these  processes,  if 
the  pig  iron  has  been  allowed  to  cool,  it  must  be  melted, 
and  so  treated  as  to  drive  the  carbon,  silicon,  and  other 
impurities  out.  In  the  great  estabUshment  where  we  are 
now,  the  cost  of  melting  again  is  saved  by  taking  the  pig 
iron  in  the  molten  state  to  the  steel  works.  In  doing  this 
the  golden  stream  from  the  furnace  is  run  out  through  a 
spout  into  five  brick-lined  tanks  called  ladles.  Each  ladle 
rests  upon  car  wheels,  and  the  five  are  joined  together  in 
a  train,  which  so  moves  upon  a  track  that  they  can  be 
brought  one  after  another  under  the  spout  of  the  furnace. 
Each  ladle  holds  twenty  tons,  and  the  five  will  contain  one 
hundred  tons,  or  the  amount  of  molten  pig  iron  drawn  off 
at  one  time. 

We  watch  the  blazing  mixture  as  it  pours  into  the  ladles, 
and  follow  the  train  as  it  moves  on,  bubbling  and  boiling, 
over  the  track  through  the  works.  The  iron  first  goes  to 
the  mixer.  This  is  a  huge  kettle  which  holds  perhaps  two 
hundred  tons.  Here  the  ladles,  one  by  one,  are  lifted  by 
great  cranes  and  their  contents  poured  in,  the  idea  being 
to  render  the  whole  of  a  more  uniform  quality. 

The  metal  is  now  ready  to  be  turned  into  steel.  The 
old  methods  of  doing  this  were  slow,  laborious,  and  costly. 
To-day,  by  the  inventions  of  Bessemer  and  others,  they 
have  become  so  rapid  and  cheap  that  steel  has  largely 
taken  the  place  of  cast  iron.  All  our  tools  are  of  steel, 
our  modern  buildings  are  of  steel,  and  steel  is  employed 
for  everything  where  toughness,  strength,  and  elasticity  are 
required.     In  making  it,  it  is  necessary  to  take  the  impuri- 


IN   THE   FURNACES  AND    ROLLING   MILLS  l6l 

ties  out  of  the  iron.  In  the  Bessemer  process  this  is  done 
by  blowing  air  through  the  molten  metal  in  such  a  way 
that  the  sulphur,  silicon,  and  other  impurities  are  driven 
off,  and  some  carbon  is  added,  so  that  as  the  metal  flows 
forth  it  is  steel  ready  to  be  cast  or  forged  into  any  shape 
that  may  be  desired.  There  are  other  processes  of  mak- 
ing steel  which  yield  much  the  same  results,  but  the 
Bessemer  process  for  a  long  time  produced  most  of  our 
building  materials  of  this  nature. 

Now  suppose  we  go  to  another  part  of  the  works  and 
see  the  steel  actually  made.  The  molten  metal  as  it  comes 
from  the  mixer  is  emptied  by  machinery  into  an  enormous 
iron  receptacle  shaped  like  an  egg.  It  is  perhaps  the  big- 
gest egg  ever  made,  and  far  bigger  than  the  famous  roc 
Qgg  described  in  the  Arabian  Nights  in  the  adventures  of 
Sindbad  the  Sailor.  This  egg  or  converter  is  made  of 
wrought  iron,  lined  with  such  materials  that  the  molten 
metal  cannot  affect  them ;  and  it  is  so  arranged  that  when 
the  iron  has  been  poured  in,  a  blast  of  air  can  be  blown 
through  it  in  from  one  hundred  and  fifty  to  two  hundred 
different  streams.  As  the  air  rushes  through,  the  various 
gases  and  other  elements  of  the  melted  iron  combine  and 
the  stuff  boils  and  seethes.  A  mighty  volume  of  blazing 
gas  and  fire  now  spurts  out  of  the  top  or  mouth  of  the  con- 
verter, and  falls  in  a  shower  of  sparks  and  fragments  of 
molten  slag,  making  most  beautiful  fireworks.  These  fire- 
works continue  for  about  ten  minutes,  or  until  all  the  im- 
purities have  been  burnt  out  and  only  the  pure  iron 
remains. 

It  is  now  too  pure  to  make  steel,  and  so  a  little  other 
iron  containing  carbon  and  manganese  is  added,  and  at  the 

CARP.  HOUSES  —  1 1 


1 62 


IN   THE   FURNACES   AND   ROLLING   MILLS 


end  the  metal  comes  out  as  steel  of  just  the 
for  tools,  machines,  and  structural  materials, 
use  in  building.  The 
steel  is  now  run  off  into 
great  molds,  in  which  it 
hardens  in  the  shape  of 
huge  blocks  called  ingots. 
These  ingots  may  be 
allowed  to  cool  and 
be  carried  elsewhere  for 


right 
such 


nature 
as  we 


Making  steel  by  Bessemer  process. 


'  The  steel  is  now  run  off 
into  great  molds." 

Steel  manufacture. 
Or  they  may  be 
taken,  as  soon  as 
they  have  become 
solid  but  still  hot, 
and  run  through 
the  rolling  mill, 
being  drawn  thin- 
ner and  thinner, 
and   kneaded    and 


rolled  this  way  and  that   until    they   are   reduced  to  the 
shapes  desired  for  making  railroad  tracks,  bridge  materials, 


IN   THE   FURNACES   AND    ROLLING   MILLS  1 63 

and  buildings.  Sometimes  the  steel  as  it  comes  from  the 
furnace  is  cast  into  the  forms  desired.  That  used  in  our 
large  buildings  is  generally  rolled  out  into  various  shapes. 
It  is  sawed  with  steel  saws,  and  is  sheared  and  planed  to 
the  exact  forms  required  for  the  structure. 

In  making  wrought  iron  the  pig  iron  is  put  into  furnaces 
of  a  different  character  from  that  in  which  the  iron  is 
smelted.  The  wrought  iron  furnace  is  usually  long  and 
low,  so  that  the  iron  can  be  stirred  about  or  puddled, 
bringing  every  bit  into  contact  with  the  air.  As  this  is 
done,  some  of  the  impurities  go  off  in  gases.  Sometimes 
iron  is  added  which  contains  the  other  elements  needed ; 
and  at  the  close  the  mass  more  or  less  pure  is  taken  out 
in  the  shape  of  a  ball  or  lump,  or  a  bloom  as  it  is  called. 
This  is  put  under  steam  hammers  and  pounded  and 
kneaded,  or  it  may  be  run  through  rollers  until  it  is  of 
the  texture  required.  It  is  now  of  such  a  nature  that  it 
can  be  bent  this  way  and  that,  or  rolled  out  into  sheets  or 
plates  or  pounded  to  shape. 

Indeed,  the  machines  for  making  and  handling  iron  and 
steel  are  of  so  many  kinds  that  we  cannot  describe  them. 
If  you  should  go  into  a  large  hardware  store  you  might 
find  forty  or  fifty  thousand  different  articles  of  iron  or  steel, 
and  each  would  have  been  made  by  machinery  somewhat 
different  from  that  which  produces  any  of  the  others.  It 
will  be  enough  for  us  to  say  that  some  of  the  machines  are 
so  strong  that  they  will  knead  or  roll  an  iron  ingot  weigh- 
ing a  ton  as  easily  as  our  cooks  knead  dough  for  bread ; 
and  others  arc  so  delicate  that  they  will  draw  out  the  steel 
into  the  hairspring  of  a  watch  or  the  needles  our  mothers 
use  in  mending  our  clothes. 


164  NAILS    AND   SCREWS,   LOCKS   AND    HINGES 

19.    NAILS  AND  SCREWS,  LOCKS  AND  HINGES 

HOW  would  you  like  to  have  a  museum  ? 
We  can  each  make  one  as  we  go  on  with 
our  travels.  We  might  entitle  our  collection 
"The  Museum  of  House  Building,"  and  in  it 
put  all  the  pictures  and  other  things  we  can 
find  that  will  illustrate  how  our  homes  are  made 
and  the  various  materials  in  them.  To  do  so 
we  should  go  back  over  our  travels,  and  col- 
lect photographs  or  drawings  of  the  first  shelters 
man  used.  We  might  get  views  of  the  tent  dwellers,  and 
of  the  savage  homes  of  grass,  cane,  and  leaves,  and  after 
that  the  log  cabins  and  other  houses  of  our  colonial  days. 
It  will  not  be  hard  to  find  pictures  of  the  Pyramid  of 
Cheops  in  Egypt,  the  Colosseum  at  Rome,  and  of  the 
great  Chinese  Wall  or  of  the  buildings  now  standing  in 
the  once  buried  city  of  Pompeii. 

We  can  easily  collect  building  materials.  Any  lumber 
yard  will  give  us  pieces  of  pine,  oak,  and  other  woods,  and 
the  stone-cutting  establishments  will  furnish  bits  of  marble, 
granite,  sandstone,  and  slate.  We  have  brick  all  around 
us,  and  many  of  us  live  near  the  materials  used  for  mak- 
ing iron  and  steel.  Coke  is  to  be  had  at  every  gas  plant,', 
and  if  we  have  no  iron  ore  near  we  can  get  some  by  writ- 
ing to  teachers  or  others  in  the  towns  at  the  mines. 

For  instance,  take  nails,  which  form  one  of  the  objects 
of  our  travels  to-day.  Let  each  of  us  collect  as  many 
kinds  as  he  can  and  bring  them  along.  I  doubt,  how- 
ever, whether,  all  taken  together,  we  can  make  the 
collection  complete.     There  are  more  than  three  hundred 


NAILS   AND   SCREWS,   LOCKS   AND   HINGES  1 65 

different  kinds  of  nails  used  in  building  and  they  range 
in  size  from  spikes  as  thick  as  our  fingers  and  half  a  foot 
long,  down  to  the  little  tacks  in  the  carpets.  Nails  are 
made  of  many  materials,  although  for  the  most  part  they 
are  of  iron  or  steel.  There  are  copper  nails,  brass  nails, 
and  nails  of  zinc  and  galvanized  iron.  The  wrought  iron 
nail  will  bend  easily,  and  the  same  is  true  of  the  nails 
with  which  the  blacksmiths  fasten  horseshoes.  Horse- 
shoe nails  have  big  heads  and  are  sharp ;  they  are  so  soft 
that  the  ends  can  be  pinched  off  and  pounded  down  where 
they  come  through  the  hoof.  Most  nails  are  made  by  ma- 
chinery, but  horseshoe  nails  are  often  forged  upon  anvils 
by  hand. 

It  would  be  interesting  to  know  who  made  the  first 
nail.  For  a  long  time,  we  may  be  sure,  men  fastened 
their  houses  together  with  wooden  pins,  and  to-day  many 
of  the  shelters  of  uncivilized  triljes  are  pinned  together 
with  wood  or  tied  into  place  with  fibers  of  one  kind  or 
another.  This  is  true  of  the  houses  of  the  poorer  of  the 
Filipinos,  whose  roofs  of  palm  leaves  are  tied  or  sewed 
to  the  rafters,  the  framework  being  fastened  together  by 
splints  or  strips  of  rattan.  Many  of  the  first  houses  of 
our  country  were  built  without  iron,  wooden  pins  and 
pegs  taking  the  places  of  nails  and  spikes.  President 
Jefferson  made  nails  for  sale  on  his  estate  at  Monticello, 
and  there  were  many  other  small  nail  factories  in  Virginia 
and  Maryland. 

The  ancients  used  nails  of  bronze  and  some  made  of 
that  metal  have  been  dug  from  the  Pompeian  ruins.  His- 
tory tells  us  that  a  century  or  so  ago  every  large  town  in 
Europe    had    its  nail  makers,  who  worked  at  that   trade 


l66  NAILS   AND   SCREWS,   LOCKS   AND    HINGES 

alone.  Each  man  had  his  own  little  anvil  and  forge  and 
he  cut  off  and  shaped  the  nails  by  hand  one  by  one. 
There  were  certain  places  near  the  iron  mines  in  England 
where  whole  villages  did  nothing  else.  Not  only  the  men, 
but  the  women  and  children  as  well,  worked  at  nail- 
making,  and  httle  boys  and  girls  heated  the  thin  rods  of 
iron  red-hot  and  cut  and  shaped  them  into  such  nails 
as  the  market  required.  In  Birmingham,  England,  sixty 
thousand  persons  were  so  employed,  and  they  used  two 
hundred  tons  of  iron  a  week. 

At  that  time  nail  rods  of  the  right  thickness  were  rolled 
or  cut  out  of  wrought  iron  bars  or  plates.  They  were 
sold  in  bundles  to  these  blacksmiths,  who  heated  the  rods 
and  cut  them  into  the  right  lengths  for  nails.  Then 
each  length  was  put  into  a  steel  vise  with  a  bit  of  the 
iron  projecting,  and  a  few  blows  with  a  hammer  flattened 
this  end  into  a  head  and  another  blow  or  so  made  the  nail 
sharp.  Tacks  and  brads  were  made  in  much  the  same 
way. 

Such  methods  were  still  in  use  everywhere  in  our  colo- 
nial days;  but  ten  years  after  we  declared  our  Independ- 
ence of  England,  a  Massachusetts  man,  Ezekiel  Reed, 
invented  a  cut-nail  making  machine.  Soon  after  this 
other  machines  were  invented  and  within  a  few  years 
nails  were  everywhere  made  by  machinery.  We  have  now 
many  nail  factories,  and  some  of  them  are  making  eight 
thousand  tons  of  nails  in  a  month.  We  have  single  ma- 
chines which  will  cut  out  a  thousand  nails  in  one  minute 
and  others  which  make  round  or  wire  nails  of  drawn  steel 
at  the  rate  of  five  hundred  per  minute. 

In  the  manufacture  of  nails  of  steel  wire,  the  pig  iron  is 


NAILS   AND   SCREWS,   LOCKS   AND   HINGES 


167 


run  through  the  Bessemer  converter  and  then  cast  into 
billets  about  a  yard  long  and  four  inches  square.  These 
are  heated  and  drawn  through  one  great  pair  of  rolls  after 
another,  until  they  come  out  in  long  wire  rods  only  three 
fourths  of  an  inch  thick.  They  now  go  through  ten  or  more 
other  rollers,  growing  thinner  and  longer  until  at  last  they 
are  rods  of  steel  almost  twelve  hundred  feet  long  and  only 


f? 


"F      T      T 


W 


W 


T  T  f 


V 
Wire  nails. 


a  quarter  of  an  inch  thick.  During  the  drawing  the  rod 
moves  faster  and  faster  until  when  near  the  end  of  its  jour- 
ney it  is  traveling  at  the  rate  of  thirteen  hundred  and  fifty 
feet  per  minute,  or  almost  fifteen  miles  an  hour.  It  is 
done  rapidly  that  the  steel  may  not  grow  too  cool  during 
the  process. 

After  this  the  rod  is  drawn  by  powerful  machinery 
through  holes  in  stout  blocks  of  cast  steel,  the  holes  being 
the  exact  size  of  the  nail  wire  required.  It  is  now  annealed, 
or  heated  to  take  out  the  strain,  and  is  then  ready  to  be 


1 68 


NAILS   AND   SCREWS,   LOCKS   AND    HINGES 


made  into  nails.  It  goes  to  the  nail  machine,  entering  it 
as  wire  and  coming  out  in  a  stream  of  finished  nails  at 
the  rate  of  from  one  hundred  and  fifty  to  five  hundred 
per  minute.  The  machine  cuts  the  nails  from  the  wire, 
points  them,  and  pounds  on  the  heads  ;  all  being  done 
more  rapidly  than  one  could  imagine.     The  threepenny 


TTTTTT 


Tacks. 


fine  nails  come  out  at  the  rate  of  five  hundred  a  minute, 
and  the  very  large  ones  at  one  hundred  and  fifty  per  min- 
ute. As  soon  as  the  nails  drop,  they  are  thrown  into  big 
revolving  iron  cylinders,  where  they  are  rolled  over  and 
over  against  each   other   and  the   sides  of  the  cylinders, 


Wire  screw  hooks. 

until  they  receive  the  bright  polish  of  the  nails  sold  in  our 
stores.  They  are  now  packed  up  in  one  hundred  pound 
kegs,  and  shipped  off  to  the  markets. 

As  we  go  through  the  factory  we  ask  what  the  word 
penny  means  when  used  in  connection  with  nails;  for  the 
men   always  speak   of   nails  according   to  size   as   three 


NAILS   AND   SCREWS,   LOCKS   AND   HINGES 


169 


pennys,  four  pennys,  six  pennys  and  so  on  up  to  sixty 
pennys.  They  show  us  that  the  nails  grow  larger  with 
the  numbers,  and  we  learn  that  the  penny  has  come  from 
the  word  pound,  and  that  they  were  originally  called  three 
oound,  four  pound,  five  pound  nails,  according  as  it  took 


Screw  eyes. 

a  thousand  of  the  nails  to  weigh  so  many  pounds.  For 
instance,  it  took  one  thousand  fourpenny  nails  to  weigh 
four  pounds,  one  thousand  tenpennys  to  weigh  ten  pounds, 
a  thousand  sixtypennys  to  weigh  sixty  pounds,  and  so  on. 
In  time  the  sizes  of  the  nails  became  fixed,  and  the  actual 
numbers  were  not  counted. 

Another  interesting  article  used  largely  in  fastening  our 
houses  together  is  the  screw,  which  is  now  made  of  steel 


Machine  screws. 

in  many  different  sizes.  In  such  manufacture  the  wire 
is  first  drawn,  and  then  cut,  headed,  and  threaded  by 
machinery  so  that  it  has  the  spiral  point  which  enables  it 
to  work  its  way  through  the  wood.  After  this  the  screws 
are  polished,  and  packed  up  in  cardboard  boxes  for  sale. 
But  it  will  be  impossible  for  us  to  examine  every  variety 
of  iron  that  goes  into  our  houses.  There  are  so  many  that 
it  would  take  weeks  of  travel  to  study  them  all.     There 


170 


NAILS   AND   SCREWS,   LOCKS   AND   HINGES 


are  some  iron  things,  however,  which  are  found  in  every 
house,  and  among  the  most  important  of  these  are 
hinges  and  locks. 

The  original  hinge  was  probably  a 
piece  of  vine  or  fiber  put  through 
holes  made  in  one  side  of  the  door  to 
tie  it  to  the  framework  so  that  it  could 
be  swung  back  and  forth.  Later  on 
leather  was  used  in  much  the  same 
way.  Doors  were  also  made  with 
pivotlike  projections  at  the  top  and 
bottom,  which  fitted  into  holes  of  the 
framework,  and 
they  were  thus 
moved  back  and 
forth.  An  Italian 
cathedral  which 
was  built  in  the 
eleventh  century 
has  shutters  of 
stone  slabs  which 
are  hung  by  such 
pivots.  During 
the  Middle  Ages 
many  curious 
iron  hinges  were 
wrought  on  the 
forge.  To-day  aM 
sorts  of  hinges  are 
cut  and  cast  out  of  iron  and  steel,  and  also  from  brass  and 
other  combinations  of  metals. 


NAILS  AND   SCREWS,   LOCKS   AND   HINGES 


171 


In  our  colonial  days,  when  iron  was  so  hard  to  get, 
many  of  the  log  cabins  had    doors  with    leather   hinges 


aa 


much  like  the  strap  iron  hinge  of  the  present 
tacked  to  the  framework.  To-day  hinges  are 
sold  at  a  little  more  than  the  cost  of  the  iron 
which  goes  into  them.     They  are  made  by  the 

millions,  and  we  can  find  many  kinds  for  our 
museum  if  we  decide  to  collect  them. 

A  more  interesting  article,  however,  is  the 
lock,  which  has  hundreds  of  shapes, 
including  many  curious  contrivances 
to  puzzle  the  stranger.  The  lock  is 
intended  to  keep  one's  things  safe 
from  thieves,  and  sometimes  from 
the  gaze  of  curious  persons  who 
wish  to  learn  about  matters  con- 
cerning which  they  have  no  busi- 
ness to  know.  Therefore  it  must 
be  of  such  a  nature  that  it  cannot  be  easily 
opened,  and  the  more  complicated  it  is  the  better 
it  serves  the  purpose  for  which  it  is  made. 

Locks  have  been  used  as  long  as  man  can 
remember.  The  Greek  poet  Homer,  who  lived 
ages  ago,  speaks  of  them  ;  and  Pliny,  an  ancient  Roman 
writer,  says  that  keys  were  invented  about  seven  hundred 
years  before  Christ.     The  old-time  Egyptians  hung  their 


1/2  NAILS   AND   SCREWS,   LOCKS   AND   HINGES 

doors  upon  hinges  of  bronze,  and  they  kept  their  jewelry  in 
bronze  caskets  fastened  by  locks.  The  Romans  had  bolts 
and  locks  on  their  doors,  and  their  money  chests  and  jewel 
caskets  were  guarded  in  the  same  way.  Some  of  their 
locks  were  so  large  that  the  key  had  to  be  supported  while 
turning  it,  and  others  so  small  that  they  were  mounted  as 
finger  rings. 

The  Chinese  have  locks  which  work  on  the  principle  of 
the  screw,  and  may  be  screwed  open  or  shut;  and  in  some 
of  their  locks  a  bell  rings  as  the  key  turns,  so  that  they 
can  tell  by  the  sound  if  anyone  is  trying  to  open  the  door. 
We  have  locks  containing  tumblers  and  springs  and 
other  contrivances  on  the  inside  which  make  it  almost  im- 
possible for  one  who  has  not  the  right  key  to  move  them. 
We  have  time  locks  which  cannot  be  opened  except  at  the 
minute  and  hour  fixed  for  doing  so ;  and  combination  locks 
in  which  one  must  turn  the  key  this  way  and  that  just  so 
far  and  no  farther  each  time.  Sometimes  the  combination 
is  composed  of  figures  and  sometimes  of  letters,  so  that 
one  must  spell  out  a  word  on  the  dial  before  the  lock  will 
spring  open.  We  have  also  spring  locks,  sliding  door 
locks,  night  latches,  and  dead  locks  in  which  no  knob  is 
used,  the  key  alone  being  required. 

Some  locks  are  arranged  so  that  they  can  be  locked 
from  the  inside  but  not  from  the  outside  of  the  door,  and 
some  in  such  a  way  that  one  key  will  unlock  a  whole  series 
of  locks,  but  the  individual  keys  will  not  open  any  of  the 
others.  Indeed,  locks  are  now  of  all  sizes  and  shapes, 
embracing  a  great  variety  of  curious  inventions.  In  the 
past  they  were  wrought  out  almost  altogether  by  hand. 
They  are  now  made  by  machinery. 


TIN   AND   ZINC  1 73 

20.    TIN    AND    ZINC 

''"T'O-DAY  we  are  to  investigate  the  use  of  certain  water- 
1  proof  metals.  We  may  call  them  such,  for  they  are 
used  to  protect  other  metals,  and  especially  iron  and  steel, 
from  the  weather,  much  as  our  rubber  coats  protect  us 
from  rain.  It  is  strange  to  think  of  putting  overcoats  on 
such  tough,  strong,  and  durable  metals  as  iron  and  steel 
for  fear  they  may  grow  sick  through  wet  weather.  But 
that  is  really  the  case.  Iron  and  steel  rust  or  oxidize  when 
exposed  to  the  moisture  and  air;  and,  if  not  protected, 
they  will  in  time  become  weak  and  scale  off  so  that  they 
will  iinally  fall  into  pieces. 

It  is  therefore  desirable  to  have  some  sort  of  weather- 
proof clothing  to  put  over  them.  Now  there  are  several 
metals  which  air  and  water  do  not  affect  so  rapidly  as  they 
do  iron  and  steel ;  and  these  are  employed  to  cover  the 
latter.  Among  the  chief  of  such  metals  are  tin  and  zinc, 
which  we  shall  examine  to-day. 

We  use  tin  for  roofing  and  spouting,  and  for  cups,  pails, 
and  pans  of  all  kinds.  Bathtubs  are  often  lined  with  tin 
and  the  canning  and  certain  other  industries  depend 
largely  upon  it  for  the  vessels  or  boxes  in  which  goods  are 
kept  until  sold.  There  must  be  a  vast  deal  of  the  metal, 
must  there  not  ? 

Indeed,  at  first  thought,  one  would  think  this  the  case, 
but  it  is  not  so.  There  are  only  a  few  places  where  tin  has 
been  found  in  large  quantities.  We  shall  see  where  these 
are  farther  on.  All  the  tin  mined  on  the  globe  in  one  year 
is  only  about  one  hundred  thousand  tons,  while  the  iron 
and  steel  amount  to  much   more  than  a  thousand  times 


174 


TIN   AND   ZINC 


that.  The  tin,  however,  is  seldom  used  except  as  a  coat- 
ing. The  metal  is  such  that  it  can  be  pounded  out  into 
sheets  so  thin  that  one  thousand  of  them  laid  one  on  top 
of  another  would  not  be  thicker  than  this  book  we  are 
reading.  Tin  foil,  such  as  is  sometimes  wrapped  around 
cakes  of  sweet  chocolate,  will  serve  as  a  specimen  of  this 
for  our  house-building  museum.  Roofing  plates  are  of 
iron  with  an  even  thinner  coating  of  tin,  and  tin  cups  and 
pans  are  only  iron,  tin-plated.  We  shall  learn  that  zinc  is 
used  in  much  the  same  way. 

But  let  us  take  a  rapid  trip  over  the  world  and  examine 
the  tin  ore  as  it  lies  in  the  earth.  We  shall  find  it  in 
nuggets,  grains,  and  dust,  much  like  the  placer  gold  that 
is  washed  out  of  the  beds  of  the  streams  in  some  parts  of 
our  West.  It  also  exists  in  lodes  or  veins  in  rocks,  which 
must  be  pounded  to  powder  to  get  the  tin  out. 

Our  first  journey  is  on  an  ocean  liner  across  the  Atlantic 
to  Wales  in  Great  Britain.  We  go  to  Cornwall,  where  are 
tin  mines  which  have  been  worked  for  two  or  three  thou- 
sand years.  The  early  Phoenicians  knew  of  them,  and 
both  they  and  the  Romans  sailed  out  through  the  Strait  of 
Gibraltar  and  across  to  Great  Britain  for  cargoes  of  tin. 
Much  of  the  Cornwall  tin  is  mixed  with  copper.  It  lies  in 
faults  or  breaks  in  the  granite  or  slate  rock,  some  of  the 
veins  being  no  thicker  than  sheets  of  paper  and  others 
many  feet  thick.  In  places  the  tin  ore  lies  in  large  masses, 
and  at  one  point  we  are  shown  a  great  bowl  almost  a  mile 
in  circumference  and  several  hundred  feet  deep,  from  which 
about  a  million  tons  have  been  taken.  The  earth  of  that 
mine  is  soft,  and  much  of  the  ore  was  washed  out.  In 
other  mines  the  workings    are    now   half   a  mile  under- 


TIN   AND   ZINC 


175 


ground,  comprising  miles  of  tunnels  in  which  pumps  are 
kept  going  to  take  out  the  water.  The  ore  when  it  comes 
to  the  surface  is  sorted  and  ground  to  a  powder.  It  is 
then  washed  to  remove  the  earthy  materials,  and  after  that 
roasted  and  smelted  and  run  off  into  bricks. 

The  grains  of  tin,  or  stream-tin  as  they  are  called,  are 


Tin  mine  in  Malay  Archipelago. 

much  like  big  grains  of  gunpowder,  whereas,  that  found 
in  the  veins  looks  like  silver  or  lead  ore.  The  smelted 
bricks  shine  like  silver. 

From  Cornwall  we  might  cross  the  English  Channel 
and  take  a  run  into  Saxony  and  Bohemia,  both  of  which 
produce  tin  ;  or  if  we  had  some  months  to  spare  we  could 
go  back  over  the  Atlantic  to  South  America  and  travel  on 
the  Amazon  to  its  source  high  up  in  the  Andes,  not  far 


176  TIN  AND   ZINC 

from  which  are  large  tin  deposits.  I  have  visited  some 
about  Lake  Titicaca  on  the  high  plateau  of  Bolivia. 
That  region  has  mountains  in  which  tin,  copper,  and 
silver  lie  close  together. 

The  tin  is  in  veins  which  range  in  thickness  up  to  six 
and  eight  feet  and  in  depth  to  more  than  six  hundred 
,feet.  The  ore  is  taken  out  by  the  Indians.  It  is  some- 
times carried  to  the  trains  or  the  smelters  on  the  backs  of 
llamas,  queer  little  animals  which  have  wool  like  a  sheep 
and  necks  and  heads  not  unhke  a  camel.  Each  llama  will 
carry  only  one  hundred  pounds  of  ore  at  a  load,  and  if 
more  is  put  upon  him  he  will  lie  down  and  spit  a  sour, 
biting  liquid  at  any  man  who  tries  to  force  him  to  move. 

The  most  important  of  all  the  tin  mines  are  in  southeast- 
ern Asia.  The  total  annual  product  of  the  world,  as  I  have 
said,  is  about  one  hundred  thousand  tons.  Of  this  perhaps 
one  twentieth  comes  from  Cornwall  and  three  times  as 
much  from  the  Andes.  Of  the  remainder  seven  thousand 
tons  are  produced  in  Australasia,  and  the  balance,  which  is 
almost  seven  tenths  of  the  whole,  comes  from  the  southern 
end  of  the  Siamese  Peninsula  near  the  Strait  of  Malacca  and 
the  two  little  islands  of  Banka  and  BilUton  lying  between 
that  Strait  and  Java.  The  mines  on  the  penincula  now 
yield  more  than  half  of  all  the  tin  used.  This  product  is 
known  as  Straits  tin.  It  is  found  in  grains,  beds,  and 
veins,  and  is  often  so  mixed  with  earth  and  gravel  that  it 
can  be  mined  by  throwing  streams  of  water  against  it 
through  a  hose  worked  by  a  pump.  The  gravel  is  then 
washed,  in  which  process  the  heavy  tin  sinks  to  the  bot- 
tom. It  is  now  gathered  up  and  carried  to  the  furnaces, 
where  it  is  smelted  with  charcoal  and  limestone  and  run 


TIN   AND   ZINC  I/f 

off  into  pigs  or  bricks  of  the  size  of  a  pound  loaf  of  bread. 
The  same  sort  of  smelting  is  done  in  other  tin  regions. 

As  the  tin  comes  from  the  smelters  it  is  mixed  with  im- 
purities. It  often  contains  arsenic  and  iron,  copper  and 
other  materials.  It  must  be  remelted  and  run  off  into  re- 
fining basins,  where  it  is  stirred  with  sticks  of  green  wood. 
As  the  wood  moves  about  through  the  boiling  metal,  its 
sap  is  cooked  out  in  steam,  and  this  aids  in  separating  the 
impurities  from  the  tin.  By  and  by,  the  other  metals, 
inasmuch  as  they  are  heavier  than  the  tin,  sink  to  the 
bottom,  and  the  molten  liquid  above,  now  almost  pure  tin, 
is  drawn  off  into  molds,  where  it  cools.  The  tin  is  now 
known  as  block  tin,  and  is  ready  for  making  tin  plate. 

In  the  meantime  the  iron  must  go  through  many  pro. 
cesses  before  it  is  ready  for  its  tin  overcoat.  The  pig 
metal  has  already  been  smelted,  and  reduced  to  the  right 
sort  of  iron  for  the  plates.  It  has  been  passed  through 
one  set  of  rollers  after  another  until  it  has  reached  the 
size  and  thickness  of  the  plates  to  be  used,  and  it  has  now 
to  be  so  cleaned,  smoothed,  and  poHshed  that  the  tin  will 
spread  evenly  over  its  surface. 

In  the  first  place,  it  must  be  perfectly  clean.  We  have 
often  heard  of  pickling  cucumbers  in  vinegar.  The  tin 
makers  tell  us  that  they  have  to  pickle  the  iron  before  the 
tin  is  put  on.  This  is  to  take  off  the  rust  and  scales.  In 
this  process  the  plates  are  bathed  again  and  again  in  hot 
sulphuric  or  hydrochloric  acid,  being  taken  out  between- 
whiles  and  washed  clean  and  heated  and  cooled  in  just  the 
right  way  to  make  them  of  the  soft  and  pliable  nature  in- 
tended for  roofing,  or  for  bending  them  to  the  shape  of  tin 
cups  and  other  such  things.    They  are  run  through  chilled 

CARP.  HOUSES —  12 


178  TIN   AND   ZINC 

iron  rollers,  are  polished  with  emery  and  oil,  and  then 
scoured  with  sand  until  they  are  white,  clean,  and  bright. 

After  they  are  ready  for  the  tin,  each  sheet  is  dropped  into 
a  pot  of  melted  grease  and  then  taken  out  and  plunged  with 
other  sheets  into  a  bath  of  melted  tin  coated  with  grease. 
Some  of  the  molten  tin  sticks  to  the  iron  plate,  and  the 
plate  then  receives  a  second  tin  bath  in  which  the  metal 
is  purer.  The  tin-plated  sheets  are  now  wiped  off  with  a 
brush,  and  put  into  the  washpot.  If  there  is  too  much  tin 
on  them,  some  is  removed  by  giving  them  a  bath  of  tallow 
and  palm  oil,  the  liquid  being  just  hot  enough  to  allow  the 
surplus  tin  to  run  off.  The  sheets  are  next  passed  through 
troughs  containing  bran  and  meal,  and  are  rubbed  with 
flannel  until  they  shine  like  a  mirror.  They  are  now  ready 
for  shipment  to  the  markets. 

Zinc  is  another  waterproof  metal  largely  used  to  protect 
the  iron  we  employ  in  our  dwellings.  Many  of  our  roofs 
are  of  galvanized  iron,  and  in  parts  of  the  world  where 
wood  is  scarce,  whole  houses,  large  and  small,  are  com- 
posed of  sheets  of  iron  so  covered.  In  making  such  iron 
the  sheets  are  coated  with  tin  by  what  is  known  as  the  gal- 
vanic process,  and  are  then  plunged  into  a  bath  of  fluid 
zinc  and  certain  other  chemicals  by  which  the  zinc  is  left 
on  the  metal.  The  term  "  galvanized  iron  "  is  also  used  for 
iron  which  has  been  dipped  in  a  bath  of  melted  zinc,  mixed 
with  certain  chemicals,  which  cause  the  zinc  to  fasten  itself 
to  the  iron. 

Vast  quantities  of  the  iron  pipes  used  for  plumbing  are 
coated  with  zinc,  and  the  same  is  true  of  spouting  and 
fixtures  of  various  kinds.  If  the  zinc  is  put  on  thickly  it 
forms  an  even  safer  protection  against  rust  than  tin.     It 


TIN   AND   ZINC 


179 


is  largely  employed  in  coating  fence  wire,  and  in  all  iron 
structures  where  painting  is  not  desirable  on  account  of 
the  cost. 

Zinc  ore  is  more  common  than  tin  ore.  It  looks  like 
lead  ore  and  is  often  mixed  with  it.  It  is  found  in  certain 
countries  of  Europe,  and  in  great  masses  in  Central  Africa. 


View  in  lead  and  zinc  mine,  Kansas. 


It  exists  in  many  parts  of  the  United  States  and  especially 
in  Kansas,  Missouri,  and  Wisconsin.  The  center  of  the 
zinc-mining  industry  is  Joplin,  in  southwestern  Missouri. 
About  that  city  great  zinc  deposits  have  been  found,  and 
more  than  one  hundred  million  dollars  worth  taken  from 
them.  There  was  no  city  at  Joplin  before  zinc  was  dis- 
covered, and  that  mineral  is  really  the  cause  of  the  growth 
of  the  city.     The  common  term  for  zinc  ore  used  by  the 


l8o  LEAD,  COPPER,  AND  BRASS 

miners  is  "jack,"  and  so  "jack"  has  built  up  the  city. 
We  have  all  heard  of  the  "  House  that  Jack  Built,"  but 
Joplin  is  the  tozvn  that  "jack"  built. 

21.  LEAD,  COPPER,  AND  BRASS 

"Oh  that  my  words  .  .  .  were  graven  with  an  iron  pen  and  lead  iii 
the  rock  forever." 

THIS  sentence  comes  from  the  Bible,  and  it  was 
uttered  by  Job,  thousands  of  years  before  Christ.  It 
shows  us  that  lead  was  already  in  use  at  that  time  and 
that  the  people  knew  much  about  it.  The  ancient 
Romans  covered  the  bottoms  of  their  ships  with  sheet 
lead  which  they  fastened  on  with  bronze  nails.  Their 
warriors  used  leaden  bullets  which  they  threw  with  shngs. 
They  had  lead  water  pipes  in  their  houses,  and  they  made 
lead  paints,  which  the  great  ladies  used  to  color  their 
cheeks. 

To-day  white  lead,  made  by  corroding  lead  in  acetic  acid, 
is  the  most  common  form  in  which  lead  is  employed. 
Such  lead,  ground  in  oil,  forms  a  waterproof  coating  for 
almost  all  our  frame  houses,  and  it  is  often  employed  to 
protect  iron  from  rust.  It  combines  readily  with  linseed 
oil,  and  is  the  basis  of  some  of  the  best  paints  which  have 
yet  been  discovered. 

We  use  lead  in  its  metallic  form  for  water  pipes,  joints, 
and  plumbing  of  various  kinds.  In  solder  it  aids  in  joining 
tin  plates  together,  and  it  is  also  employed  in  the  manufac- 
ture of  glass. 

Lead  is  one  of  the  most  flexible  and  durable  of  metals. 


LEAD,  COPPER,  AND  BRASS  l8l 

It  can  be  bent  or  pounded  into  all  sorts  of  shapes.  It  does 
not  rust,  and  is  therefore  valuable  in  waterworks  and  their 
fixtures.  It  can  be  easily  melted ;  and  had  we  the  right 
molds  we  could  pour  some  lead  into  them  and  make  toys 
of  all  kinds.  You  have  heard  of  Hans  Christian  Ander- 
sen's story  of  the  little  tin  soldier.  I  am  pretty  sure,  how- 
ever, that  soldier  was  made  of  lead  or  had  lead  in  him. 
Some  of  the  verses  of  our  nursery  days  remind  us  of  one 
of  the  uses  of  lead. 

"  There  was  a  little  boy 
And  he  had  a  little  gun 

And  his  bullets  were  made  of  lead,  lead,  lead. 
He  shot  John  Sprig 
Through  the  middle  of  his  wig 
And  knocked  it  off  his  head,  head,  head." 

Lead  is  stillused  for  small  shot  and  bullets.  Our  pioneer 
forefathers  made  their  own  bullets,  melting  the  lead  in  iron 
pans  over  the  open  fires,  and  pouring  it  into  molds,  where 
it  hardened  to  shape. 

But  where  does  lead  come  from  ? 

We  find  the  ore  in  different  parts  of  the  United  States, 
and  it  is  common  all  over  the  world.  For  a  long  time  the 
chief  source  of  supply  was  Spain,  and  a  great  deal  came 
also  from  Great  Britain.  When  our  country  began  to  be 
settled,  the  first  mines  worked  were  in  Virginia,  Connecti- 
cut, and  Massachusetts,  and  from  them  came  some  of  the 
bullets  we  used  in  our  wars  with  the  Indians,  and  also 
with  the  British.  As  the  pioneers  made  their  way  west- 
ward they  found  richer  deposits  of  lead  in  the  Mississippi 
basin,  and  especially  in  Iowa,  Illinois,  and  Wisconsin. 
The  city  of  Dubuque  was  named  after  a  Frenchman  who 


1 82  LEAD,   COPPER,   AND   BRASS 

bought  lead  mines  near  there  from  the  Indians  about 
1780;  and  long  before  that,  the  Indians  of  Wisconsin, 
Illinois,  and  Iowa  were  smelting  lead  and  selling  the  ore 
to  the  French  traders.  The  Frenchmen  wanted  furs,  and 
therefore  they  sold  the  Indians  firearms  and  taught  them 
how  to  handle  the  lead  and  make  it  into  bullets.  The  In- 
dians smelted  the  ore  in  rude  furnaces  made  by  digging 
holes  in  the  hills,  and  they  ran  the  metal  off  into  leaden 
pigs  which  their  squaws  carried  to  the  trading  posts.  After 
a  time  the  ore  became  so  valuable  that  it  was  used  as  money 
in  the  upper  Mississippi  basin,  the  rate  of  exchange  being 
a  peck  of  corn  for  a  peck  of  ore. 

Lead  ore  in  its  most  common  form  usually  contains  more 
or  less  other  metals.  In  this  form  it  is  known  as  galena. 
We  have  two  towns  in  the  United  States  named  Galena, 
one  in  Illinois  and  another  in  Kansas,  both  so  called  from 
the  lead  deposits  near  by.  We  have  towns  farther  west 
which  were  also  named  from  mines  of  this  metal  about 
them.  We  have  all  heard  of  the  city  of  Leadville,  Colo- 
rado. It  is  situated  almost  two  miles  above  the  level  of 
the  sea,  high  up  in  the  Rockies,  and  is  built  over  veins  and 
beds  of  silver  and  lead,  while  great  mines  producing  these 
metals  lie  all  about  it.  The  lead  of  the  Rockies  is  much 
mixed  with  silver,  and  in  the  smelting  both  metals  are  saved. 
In  the  mines  about  Joplin  a  great  deal  of  zinc  is  mixed 
with  the  lead.  Altogether  we  produce  several  hundred 
thousand  tons  of  lead  every  year,  the  value  of  the  product 
sometimes  amounting  to  many  millions  of  dollars. 

Another  metal  largely  employed  as  a  building  material 
is  copper.  Great  structures  are  roofed  with  it,  and  the 
most  beautiful  doors  of  some  of  our  public  buildings  have 


LEAD,  COPPER,  AND  BRASS 


183 


been  made  of  a  combination  of  it  and  other  metals.  This 
is  so  of  the  huge  bronze  doors  which  form  the  entrance  to 
our  Capitol  at  Washington,  and  of  those  made  by  Ghiberti 
in  the  Baptistry  at  Florence.  These  doors  have  been 
cast  to  represent  historical  scenes,  the  figures  of  men  and 


In  a  copper  smelter. 

•horses  standing  out  upon  them  as  though  carved  in  the 
metal.  The  Crawford  door  which  leads  in  from  the  portico 
of  the  United  States  Senate  Chamber  has  panels  repre- 
senting the  death  of  General  Warren  at  the  battle  of 
Bunker  Hill,  George  Washington  on  his  way  to  his  inau- 
guration as  President  in  1789,  and  the  laying  of  the  corner 
stone  of  the  Capitol  in  1793.  Inside  the  Capitol  are 
bronze  stairways ;  and  the  Library  Building,  not  far  away, 


184  LEAD,  COPPER,  AND  BRASS 

has  a  bronze  fountain  in  front  of  it  and.  bronze  doors  of 
remarkable  beauty. 

Copper  is  found  in  all  articles  made  of  brass,  and  we  fre- 
quently have  it  in  door  knobs,  and  on  the  spigots  and  other 
iixtures  connected  with  plumbing.    We  use  it  for  the  wires 


In  an  Ohio  brass  foundry. 

which  run  through  our  homes  to  the  telephones,  and  also 
in  those  which  carry  the  current  for  the  electric  lights. 
We  have  brass  beds,  copper  and  brass  lamps,  and,  indeed, 
many  beautiful  things  made  of  copper  and  brass. 

In  most  of  these  articles  the  copper  is  mixed  or  alloyed 
with  other  metals.  Sometimes  the  chief  sister  metal  is 
zinc,  and  the  two  when  melted  together  form  brass.  In 
other  cases  tin  is  combined  with  the  copper,  and  in  the  past 
this  alone  was  called  bronze.     Now  an  alloy  of  copper  and 


LEAD,  COPPER,  AND  BRASS  1 85 

aluminium  is  also  called  bronze,  and  the  distinction  between 
brass  and  bronze  is  not  so  sharply  made  as  it  was  in  the 
past.  Both  metals  are  now  formed  by  mixtures  of  copper, 
zinc,  tin,  and  aluminium,  different  proportions  of  the  vari- 
ous metals  being  employed  for  making  different  things. 

Copper  is  one  of  the  oldest  of  metals.  Indeed,  some 
people  think  it  was  the  first  metal  used  by  man.  It  lies  in 
the  earth  in  ores  of  different  colors,  being  often  mixed  with 
rock  and  various  metals.  Red  oxide  of  copper  is  reddish  ; 
malachite,  which  is  carbonate  of  copper,  is  green  ;  and 
copper  pyrites  is  yellow. 

We  have  vast  quantities  of  copper.  It  is  found  here  and 
there  throughout  the  Appalachian  Range.  There  are 
enormous  deposits  of  it  about  Lake  Superior  in  the 
northern  peninsula  of  Michigan,  and  we  have  a  great  deal 
in  Montana,  Arizona  and  other  parts  of  the  Rocky  Moun- 
tain Highlands  where  the  ore  is  found  in  great  masses. 
There  are  also  large  deposits  in  Alaska  and  California. 
Our  annual  product  often  amounts  to  hundreds  of  mil- 
lions of  pounds,  and  it  is  worth  far  more  than  our  product 
of  gold  and  silver. 

Indeed,  copper  comes  next  to  iron  in  the  value  of  the 
metals  we  take  from  the  earth.  Our  mines  are  so  rich 
that  they  now  yield  the  greater  part  of  all  the  copper  used 
m  the  world,  although  there  are  large  deposits  in  Canada 
and  Mexico,  and  in  South  America,  Africa,  Australasia, 
and  Europe. 

About  the  oldest  copper  mines  known  are  those  of  the 
Spanish  Peninsula.  They  have  been  worked  since  the 
:inic  of  the  Romans,  and  thousands  of  miners  are  labor- 
ing in  them  to-day.     The  most  famous  are  the  Rio  Tinto 


1 86 


LEAD,   COPPER,   AND   BI^SS 


mines,  which  lie  about  forty-six  miles  northwest  of  the 
city  of  Seville.  They  cover  a  space  large  enough  to 
make  fifty  farms  of  one  hundred  acres  each.  The  Rio 
Tinto  ore  lies  near  the  surface,  and  it  is  dug  and  blasted 
out  and  carried  on  trains  to  the  smelters.  There  are  more 
than  sixty  miles  of  railroads  in   those   mines,  and  thirty 


Casting  brass. 


locomotives  are  kept  busy  taking  out  the  ore.  The  copper 
is  mixed  with  iron  and  sulphur,  and  it  must  be  smelted  in 
order  to  make  the  bricks  or  pigs  which  constitute  the 
metal  of  commerce. 

An  interesting  story  is  told  of  the  discovery  of  the  Calu- 
met and  Hecla  Copper  Mines  of  the  Michigan  Peninsula. 
They  lie  about  five  miles  from  the  shores  of  Lake  Supe- 
rior, and  are  among  the  richest  of  their  kind  in  the  world. 


LEAD,  COPPER,  AND  BRASS 


187 


Many  millions  of  dollars'  worth  of  ore  has  already  been 
taken  from  them,  and  more  is  mined  every  year.  The  ore 
is  largely  in  masses,  some  of  which  weigh  many  tons. 
Almost  a  half  century  ago  no  one  knew  that  copper  lay 
there,  when  one  day 
a  pig  in  wandering 
about  through  the 
woods  happened  to 
fall  into  a  hole.  He 
tried  to  root  his  way 
out,  and  thereby  un- 
covered some  of  the 
ore  and  thus  brought 
this  great  treasure 
vault  to  the  eyes  of 
man. 

In  making  brass 
the  copper  is  melted 
and  the  zinc  grad- 
ually added,  the  two 
metals  being  so 
treated  that  they  are 
thoroughly  mixed, 
after  which  they  can  be  run  out  into  molds  forming  the 
castings  desired. 

Brass  is  soft,  and  can  be  easily  bent.  It  is  rolled  in 
thin  sheets,  and  drawn  out  into  wire.  If  we  would  see 
how  the  rolling  is  done,  we  may  do  so  by  a  flying  journey 
to  the  great  works  of  the  Naugatuck  valley  in  Connecticut. 
The  Naugatuck  River  rises  in  the  hills  in  the  northwest- 
ern   part    of   that  state    and    flows   rapidly   down    to   the 


Pouring  brass  into  molds. 


1 88  A  TRIP  TO    FAIRYLAND 

Housatonic,  its  mouth  being  at  Derby.  Between  the 
towns  of  Derby  and  Torrington  the  fall  is  about  six  hun- 
dred feet,  and  this  gives  a  great  water  power  which  is  used 
by  the  brass  makers.  Most  of  the  rolled  brass  of  the 
United  States  is  made  there,  and  thousands  of  men  are 
employed  in  the  business.  There  are  many  large  mills 
for  melting  and  rolling  the  metal.  They  use  copper  and 
zinc,  putting  them  together  in  the  proper  proportions  for 
the  material  desired,  and  then  running  the  product  through 
rolling  mills  which  turn  them  into  plates  of  just  the  right 
size.  They  make  sheets  of  all  thicknesses  down  to  some 
for  eyelets,  so  carefully  rolled  that  they  do  not  vary  more 
than  half  the  breadth  of  a  hair  of  your  head. 

Some  brass  has  ninety  parts  of  copper  and  ten  parts  of 
zinc.  This  is  red  brass,  and  has  a  copperish  tinge.  There 
are  other  combinations  which  contain  sixty  parts  of  copper 
and  thirty  of  zinc.  This  brass  is  yellow,  and  looks  some- 
what like  gold.  Bell  metal  is  more  than  three  fourths 
copper,  the  balance  being  tin ;  and  gun  metal  usually  con- 
tains one  hundred  parts  of  copper  to  ten  parts  of  tin. 


o>»<c 


22.     A   TRIP   TO    FAIRYLAND 

WE  shall  enter  fairyland  during  our  travels  to-day 
and  make  the  acquaintance  of  the  fairy  queen, 
known  as  glass.  She  is  one  of  the  brightest,  gayest,  and 
most  beautiful  of  the  sprites  engaged  in  house  building, 
and  one  of  the  kindest  to  civilized  man.  She  has  driven 
the  gloom  and  darkness  out  of  our  homes  and  allowed  the 
sun  and  warmth  to  stream  in.     She  is  a  truthful  fairy.    We 


A  TRIP  TO   FAIRYLAND 


189 


'*'l^ 


may  peep  into  her  face  as  it  shines  in  our  mirrors  at  any 
hour  of  the  day ;  and  she  will  tell  us  whether  our  hair  is 
combed  or  untidy,  whether  our  faces  are  dirty  or  clean, 
and  even  the  state  of  our  minds  by  the  happiness  or  misery 
shown  in  the  reflection.  Queen  Glass  is  also  a  worker  in 
magic.  Through  her  are  created  the  most  beautiful  of 
objects,  from  the  slipper 
which  Cinderella  lost  j  • 
during  her  dance  with 
the  prince,  to  the  cut 
glass  we  use  on  our 
tables,  and  the  glass 
beads  and  brooches 
which  shine  like  dia- 
monds when  the  light 
strikes  them. 

Some  of  the  most 
wonderful  things  upon 
earth  are  not  regarded 
by  us  because  we  have 
always  had  them  about 
us.  This  is  especially 
true  of  glass.  When  bits  of  glass  are  first  shown  to  the 
savages  of  Africa  they  are  considered  as  jewels,  and 
glass  beads  are  so  precious  that  gold,  ostrich  feathers, 
and  ivory  are  exchanged  for  them.  I  once  traveled 
across  the  Korean  Peninsula  when  that  part  of  the 
world  had  been  but  little  visited  by  white  men.  I  had 
with  me  some  mineral  waters  in  glass  bottles,  and  I  found 
that  the  natives  cared  more  for  the  bottles  than  for  any- 
thing else  I  could  give  them.     At  that  time  the  houses  of 


V- 


Glass  blower. 


igO  A  TRIP   TO   FAIRYLAND 

Korea  had  no  glass,  and  their  windows  and  doors  were 
backed  with  oiled  paper,  which  allowed  but  httle  light  to 
come  in.  It  was  then  the  same  in  Japan,  where  the  walls 
of  the  beautifully  built  homes  are  often  a  latticework  over 
which  a  thin  half-transparent  paper  is  pasted.  These  move 
back  and  forth  in  grooves,  serving  as  both  walls  and  doors. 
The  outer  walls  of  the  house  are  usually  of  boards,  and 
are  so  made  that  they  can  be  shoved  back  or  taken  away 
during  the  daytime,  leaving  the  walls  of  lattice  covered 
with  paper  to  furnish  the  light. 

The  Chinese  use  paper  for  glass  in  many  of  their  stores 
and  houses,  and  both  the  Chinese  and  Japanese  have 
lanterns  of  paper  and  horn.  The  horn  lanterns  arQ 
made  by  softening  the  horn  and  pressing  it  out  so  that  it 
is  almost  transparent.  In  some  of  the  old  dwellings  of  the 
Philippine  Islands  shells  are  used  for  windowpanes,  and 
it  is  said  that  the  Romans  had  windows  of  horn. 

Many  of  the  castles  of  feudal  Europe  had  only  slits  in 
the  walls  to  admit  the  light,  and  even  in  the  Middle  Ages 
the  houses  of  the  common  people  were  often  lighted  with 
panes  of  oiled  paper.  When  our  forefathers  came  to 
America  glass  was  costly,  and  paper  was  often  used  in  its 
place,  the  settlers  bringing  oiled  paper  with  them  for  that 
purpose. 

We  must  not  think,  however,  that  glass  was  not  known 
before  it  came  into  use  as  a  building  material.  Man  had 
learned  how  to  make  it  many  centuries  before  that,  and 
had  used  it  for  bottles,  vessels,  and  beads  for  ages  before 
he  tried  to  put  it  into  skylights,  windows,  and  doors. 
There  are  pictures  of  glass  bottles  in  some  of  the  Egyp- 
tian tombs  four  thousand  years  old,  and  on  the  walls  of 


A  TRIP  TO   FAIRYLAND 


191 


one  of  them  is  a  painting  of  a  man  blowing  glass.  The 
ancient  Greeks  had  glass  vessels,  and  the  Phoenicians 
made  beads  of  colored  glass  and  used  them  in  trading. 

But  we  have  not  yet  learned  what  glass  is.  We  shall  find 
out  all  about  it  a  little  later  on  when  we  visit  the  factories. 
It  will  be  enough  here  to  say  that  it  is  made  of  silica,  of 
which  the  sand  of  the  seashore  and  other  places  is  mostly 
composed,  melted  together  with  soda  or  potash  and  lime 


Roman  glass. 


and  oxide  of  lead,  the  character  of  the  glass  depend- 
ing much  on  the  materials  used  and  their  treatment.  In 
short,  we  may  say  that  glass  is  melted  sand,  for  the  pro- 
portion of  other  things  in  it  is  small. 

The  ancient  Romans  got  their  first  glass  from  the 
Phoenicians,  and  they  have  left  a  story  as  to  how  the  latter 
found  that  sand  could  be  turned  into  glass.  Pliny,  a 
Roman  writer,  says  that  the  discovery  came  from  some 
Phoenician  sailors  whose  vessel,  containing  a  cargo  of 
soda,  was  cast  ashore  on  the  coast  of  Palestine.  The  soda 
was  in  lumps,  and  when  they  built  a  fire  on  the  sand  they 
used  them  to  raise  their  cooking  pots  above  the  coals.     The 


192 


A  TRIP  TO   FAIRYLAND 


heat  of  the  fire  melted  the  soda    and  sand  together   and 
formed  a  rough  glass. 

It  is  doubtful,  however,  whether  this  was  really  the 
origin  of  the  discovery.  A  heat  so  slight  as  a  camp  fire 
could  hardly  melt  sand ;  and  we  know  that  the  Egyptians 

had  made  glass  before  that. 
The  British  Museum  has  a  glass 
vase  engraved  with  the  name  of 
an  Assyrian  king  who  lived  long 
before  the  days  of  Daniel  the 
prophet,  and  also  a  blue  glass 
amulet  which  is  almost  as  old  as 
the  Pyramids.  Glass  sheets, 
which  were  probably  used  for 
mirrors,  were  found  in  Pompeii, 
and  the  Emperor  Nero,  who 
reigned  shortly  after  that  city 
was  destroyed,  paid  two  hun- 
dred and  fifty  thousand  dollars 
for  two  little  glass  vases. 

Among  the  most  skillful  of 
the  early  glassmakers  were  the 
people  of  Venice.  They  made 
mosaics,  wonderful  pictures 
composed  of  bits  of  colored 
glass  fitted  together;  and  they  floored  and  walled  some  of 
their  cathedrals  and  other  buildings  with  them.  They  also 
manufactured  vessels  and  other  things  of  glass,  having  pro- 
cesses the  secrets  of  which  it  was  death  to  tell  a  stranger. 
For  a  long  time  the  glassworkers  were  not  allowed  to  leave 
Venice,  and  if  they  did  so  men  were  sent  after  them  with 


Vase  from  Pompeii. 


A  TRIP  TO   FAIRYLAND 


193 


instructions  to  kill  them.  One  such  glassworker,  named 
Paoli,  was  tracked  to  France,  where  he  was  tound  one 
morning  stabbed  to  the  heart  by  a  dagger  on  which  was 
written  the  word  "Traitor." 

About  the  time  that  Columbus  started  out  on  the 
voyage  during  which  he  discovered  America,  the  street  of 
the  glassvvorkers  on  the  island  of  Murano,    near  Venice, 


Venetian  glass. 

was  a  mile  long  and  upon  it  were  sold  all  sorts  of  beautiful 
wares  which  were  made  nowhere  else.  Among  them  were 
beads,  bracelets,  bottles,  vessels,  goblets,  and  mirrors 
backed  with  an  amalgam  of  tin  and  quicksilver.  The 
Venetians  are  said  to  have  invented  that  kind  of  mirror. 
It  is  much  the  same  as  our  mirrors  of  to-day. 

Fine  glass  is  still  made  by  the  Venetians,  although  the 
secrets  of  their  work  have  long  ago  been  scattered  over 
the  world.  Some  of  them  were  carried  to  France  by 
workmen  who  escaped,  notwithstanding  the  danger,  and 

CARP.  UOLSKS —  13 


194  A  TRIP  TO   FAIRYLAND 

especially  by  a  party  of  eighteen  who  went  to  Paris  and 
established  a  glass  factory  there.  That  was  just  about 
one  hundred  years  before  George  Washington  was  inau- 
gurated as  our  first  President.  The  Paris  factory  made 
mirrors  by  blowing  the  melted  glass  and  bending  it  out 
into  plates,  which  were  silvered.  Then  a  P'rench  work- 
man discovered  how  to  cast  the  molten  glass,  and  for  a 
hundred  years  France  was  the  center  of  the  cast  plate- 
glass  manufacture. 

In  the  meantime  the  Germans  and  English  had  learned 
how  to  make  glass  of  various  kinds.  The  Bohemians  had 
invented  processes  of  making  cast  glass  and  cut  glass,  and 
had  brought  in  the  art  of  mirror  making  from  the  French. 
The  English  glassmakers  were  first  taught  by  men 
imported  from  Venice  and  France,  and  one  of  them  in- 
vented the  process  of  making  glass  of  lead  flint,  which 
was  especially  brilliant  and  hitherto  unknown. 

In  our  own  country  some  glassmakers  were  brought  over 
with  Captain  John  Smith,  but  there  is  no  record  that  they  pro- 
duced anything  of  value.  A  year  after  the  Pilgrims  landed 
at  Plymouth  some  Italians  were  imported  to  make  glass 
beads  for  the  Indians,  and  a  little  later  glassworks  were 
built  at  New  York,  Salem,  and  Philadelphia. 

Our  first  really  successful  glass  factory,  however,  was 
started  at  Boston  about  a.d.  1787.  Ten  years  after  that 
time,  the  first  one  at  Pittsburgh  was  built,  and  now  we  have 
in  different  parts  of  the  Union  glass  factories  making  all 
sorts  of  wares.  The  number  all  told  is  four  or  five  hundred 
and  their  capital  is  many  millions  of  dollars.  Some  of  the 
factories  produce  window  glass  only,  others  make  bottles, 
and  others  are  devoted  to  cut  glass  and  tableware.     Penn- 


A  VISIT  TO   A   GLASS   FACTORY  1 95 

sylvania  has  long  held  the  first  place  as  a  glass  manufac- 
turing state.  Ohio  ranks  next,  and  then  come  Indiana, 
West  Virginia,  and  several  other  states. 

23.    A   VISIT   TO   A   GLASS   FACTORY 

WE  each  have  a  pair  of  magic  spectacles  this  morning. 
They  have  been  furnished  by  Madame  Glass,  our 
queen  of  the  fairies;  and  through  them  we  shall  see  some 
of  the  factories  in  which  her  wonders  are  made.  We  have 
come  to  Pittsburgh  by  railroad  and  are  now  in  an  enormous 
establishment  of  many  huge  buildings  filled  with  furnaces, 
tables,  vats,  and  machinery  of  various  kinds.  Overhead  is 
a  network  of  pipes,  rods,  and  belts,  and  below  in  the  floor 
are  great  pits  in  which  men  are  blowing  glass  somewhat 
as  a  child  blows  soap  bubbles.  'They  stand  on  the  edges 
and  swing  long  cylinders  of  red-hot  glass  back  and  forth. 

How  hot  it  is  !  The  buildings  have  great  openings  to 
let  in  the  air  and  huge  machines  are  employed  to  keep  it 
in  motion.  Nevertheless  some  of  the  men  are  bare  to  the 
waist,  and  we  feel  as  though  we  should  hke  to  take  off 
our  flesh  and  walk  about  in  our  bones.  The  temperature 
required  to  melt  the  sand  is  about  3000°  F.  or  nearly  fifteen 
times  that  of  boiHng  water,  and  this  intense  heat  is  kept  up 
inside  the  melting  tanks  day  after  day  while  the  glass 
making  goes  on. 

We  take  a  look  at  the  furnaces.  They  are  made  to  with- 
stand the  great  heat ;  their  walls  and  roofs  are  fire  brick, 
and  the  walls  are  two  feet  or  more  thick  and  bound  round 
with  iron  to  keep  them  in  place.     The  tanks  or  pots  in 


196  A   VISIT   TO   A   GLASS    FACTORY 

which  the  molten  masses  are  fused  are  of  the  best  of  fire 
clay,  and  the  tables  upon  which  some  kinds  of  glass  are 
rolled  into  shape  are  cast  iron. 

But  first  let  us  look  at  the  stuff  which  these  men  are 
about  to  put  into  the  furnace.  It  is  pure  sand  mixed  with 
soda  or  potash  and  lime  in  just  the  right  quantities.  The 
mixing  must  be  thoroughly  done,  and  sometimes  the  mix- 
ture is  ground  to  a  powder  before  putting  in.  The  sand 
must  be  good,  and  it  is  often  purified  by  washing,  roasting, 
and  grinding.  Much  of  that  now  used  comes  from  Berk- 
shire, Massachusetts;  Juniata  County,  Pennsylvania;  Han- 
cock County,  West  Virginia;  and  certain  places  in  Illinois 
and  Missouri.  The  most  extensive  beds  worked  are  those 
of  Massachusetts  and  Pennsylvania.  The  lime  is  usually 
made  of  powdered  limestone  or  chalk,  and  for  fine  glass 
the  best  marble  dust  is  employed.  In  some  glass,  lead 
takes  the  place  of  the  lime,  in  which  cases  red  lead  or  a 
kind  of  yellow  lead  is  employed.  When  the  mixture  is 
complete  it  is  known  as  a  batch,  and  is  then  ready  for  the 
pots  or  tank  in  which  it  is  melted. 

We  first  examine  one  of  the  tank  furnaces,  in  which 
most  of  our  common  window  glass  is  made.  We  watch 
the  men  as  they  shovel  the  batch  into  the  great  long  deep 
tank  of  fire  clay,  mixing  a  little  broken  glass  with  it,  that 
it  may  melt  the  more  easily.  The  stuff  goes  in  at  one  end 
and  after  melting  flows  out  at  the  other.  The  heat  is  fur- 
nished by  gas  flames  which  pour  over  the  mixture,  the  tem- 
perature being  so  high  that  the  sand,  soda,  and  lime  are 
soon  one  molten  mass  which  seethes  and  boils  and  bubbles 
under  the  flames. 

As  the  mixing  continues  the  impurities  rise  to  the  sur- 


A   VISIT  TO   A   GLASS   FACTORY 


197 


face  and  are  so  held  back  by  floaters  of  fire  brick  that 
when  the  furnace  is  opened  only  the  pure  glass  can  pass 
out.  From  time  to  time  new  charges  are  put  in,  and  the 
fire  is  kept  going  for  months.  The  molten  glass  is  usually 
allowed  to  stand  for  a  while  in  order  that  its  materials  may 
be  easily  mixed  and  the  glass  be  refined.  During  this 
time  it  is  skimmed  and  samples  are  taken  out  and  tested. 


"We  shall  see  plate  glass  made  first." 

It  is  next  cooled,  in  which  process  it  changes  from  a  liquid] 
state  to  a  dough  or  paste,  which  can  be  blown  into  various 
shapes. 

We  shall  see  plate  glass  made  first.  We  watch  a  pot 
of  molten  glass  as  it  is  taken  from  the  furnace  and  lowered 
upon  a  truck.  This  is  pushed  through  the  room  to  a 
large  iron  table,  where  the  pot  is  lifted  by  a  crane  and 
emptied.  The  hot  glass  comes  forth  much  like  taffy, 
ready   for    pulling.     It   is    kept  on   the  table    by  narrow 


198 


A  VISIT  TO   A   GLASS    FACTORY 


Strips  of  metal  which  run  around  the  edges.  These  strips 
determine  the  thickness  of  the  sheets  to  be  rolled.  When 
the  molten  glass  has  been  emptied,  a  heavy  iron  roller 
which  travels  on  these  strips  is  passed  over  the  table, 
pressing  the  glass  out  and  making  it  smooth  and  level. 
The  table  and  roller  must  both  be  heated  before  the  glass 


Rolling  plate  glass. 

p  poured  out  in  order  that  it  may  not  be  too  rapidly  cooled. 
The  rolling  must  be  carefully  done. 

As  soon  as  the  plate  is  rolled,  it  is  taken  to  a  second 
furnace,  where  it  is  annealed  or  tempered.  This  furnace 
has  been  raised  to  the  same  degree  of  heat  as  that  of  the 
glass  upon  leaving  the  rolling,  and  is  so  arranged  that  the 
plate  will  cool  slowly  during  a  number  of  days. 

The  plate  is  now  ready  for  smoothing  and  polishing. 
As  it  comes  from  the  annealing  furnace  it  is  rough,  and 


A   VISIT  TO   A   GLASS   FACTORY 


199 


thicker  in  some  places  than  in  others.  It  must  be  ground 
down  until  it  is  smooth  and  even  throughout.  This  is  done 
by  fastening  it  to  a  table  over  which  cast-iron  rollers  are 
made  to  slide,  while  coarse  sand  and  water  are  sprinkled 
upon  them.  The  sand  grinds  the  glass  to  the  right  thick- 
ness, and  it  is  smoothed  and  polished  by  rollers  covered 
with  leather  or  felt  and  emery  dust.  After  this  it  is  further 
polished  with  rouge. 
About  one  half  the 
thickness  of  the 
plate  is  cut  away 
during  the  grinding. 
But  suppose  we 
go  to  those  long  fur- 
naces on  the  other 
side  of  the  works, 
where  the  half- 
naked  men  are  mak- 
ing the  common  window  glass  we  have  in  our  houses.  Each 
man  stands  before  the  furnace  at  a  door  which  rests  just 
above  a  long  narrow  pit  in  the  floor.  Now  he  opens  the 
door,  and  we  can  see  the  red-hot  mass  of  glass  dough 
within.  The  man  has  a  long  iron  pipe  in  his  hand,  with  a 
mouthpiece  at  one  end.  He  puts  the  pipe  into  the  fur- 
nace, and  dips  it  into  the  metal,  as  the  hot  soft  glass  is 
called.  He  twists  it  about  and  rolls  the  glass  on  it  into  a 
lump,  just  as  one  might  do  with  rather  stiff  taffy.  He 
keeps  on  twisting  until  his  lump  weighs  about  twenty 
pounds,  when  he  lifts  it  out  and  holds  it  down  in  the  pit. 
He  now  puts  the  other  end  of  the  pipe  into  his  mouth  and 
blows,  whirling  the  pipe  between  the  palms  of  his  hands. 


Making  window  glass. 


200 


A   VISIT  TO   A   GLASS   FACTORY 


As  he  does  so  the  lump  gradually  assumes  a  pear  shape. 
It  is  now  laid  upon  a  smooth  slab  of  iron  or  marble  and 
rolled  over  and  over,  and  then  put  into  the  furnace  again. 

A    little   later   it   is 

taken  out,  and  again 
blown  until  at  last 
the  pear  has  become 
a  beautiful  cylinder 
of  glass,  closed  at 
one  end  and  at- 
tached to  the  blow- 
pipe   at    the    other. 

It  is  now  as  tall  as 

Reheating  the  cyhnder.  ^^^  ■,    „     r^. 

^  ■'  we  are,  and  a  loot 

or  more  in  diameter.  This  cylinder  has  been  miade  by 
blowing  the  glass,  while  swinging  it  to  and  fro  at  the  end 
of  the  pipe  in  the  pit. 

But  let  us  see  what  the  man  is  doing  with  his  cylinder. 
He  has  put  it  back 
into  the  furnace,  and 
is  heating  it  again. 
As  he  thrusts  it  in 
he  closes  the  mouth 
of  the  blowpipe  with 
his  finger  and  the 
air  within,  which  ex- 
pands by  the  heat, 
bursts  open  the  glass 
at  the  end.    The  cyl- 


Snapping  off  the  ends. 


inder  is  now  taken  out,  and  that  part  still  hot  is  cut  off  with 
an  iron  tool.     A  thread  of  hot  glass  is  next  drawn  around 


A   VISIT  TO   A   GLASS   FACTORY 


20 1 


the  shoulder  at  the  other  end  of  the  cyhnder,  next  the  blow- 
pipe, and  a  piece  of  cold  iron  passed  around  it.  As  the 
cold  iron  touches  the  hot  glass  the  cylinder  cracks  and 
the  mouth  breaks  off.  It  has  left  a  round  tube  of  hot  glass 
which  is  even  throughout  and  cut  straight  off  at  both  ends. 


In  a  South  American  glass  factory. 

A  line  is  now  drawn  with  a  diamond  from  one  end  to 
the  other  on  this  cylinder,  and  the  cylinder  then  laid  in 
what  is  known  as  the  flattening  kiln.  In  a  short  time  it 
opens  along  the  cut  made  by  the  diamond,  and  under  the 
influence  of  the  heat  flattens  out  so  that  it  forms  a  smooth 
sheet  of  glass.  This  is  window  glass  ready  to  be  cut  into 
the  various  sizes  demanded. 

Window  glass  is  not  polished  before  marketing,  but  it 
must  be  annealed  or  tempered.     This  is  done  in  a  long 


202 


A   VISIT  TO   A  GLASS   FACTORY 


oven,  hot  at  one  end  and  cool  at  the  other,  the  glass  being 
carried  by  a  system  of  endless  iron  bands  very  slowly  from 
the  hot  end  to  the  cool  one.  Window  glass  is  more  easily 
broken  than  plate  glass,  and  is  less  durable  when  ex- 
posed to  wind  pressure.     The  furnaces  in  which  the  batch 

for  sheet  glass  is  melted 
are  usually  large.  Some 
are  from  one  hundred 
and  fifty  to  two  hun- 
dred feet  long,  thirty 
feet  wide,  and  four  or 
five  feet  deep.  A  fac- 
tory can  turn  out  a  vast 
deal  of  glass  in  a  year, 
the  monthly  output  of 
one  of  the  Pennsylvania 
establishments  being 
enough  to  cover  a  space 
of  twelve  acres  and 
leave  some  to  spare. 

Glass  bottles  and  jars 
are  generally  blown, 
machinery  being  largely 
employed.  The  necks 
of  the  bottles  are  first  pressed  and  the  body  of  the  bottle 
afterwards  blown  to  the  form  desired  in  molds  in  which  the 
raised  letters,  which  are  sometimes  seen  on  the  outside  of 
such  glassware,  are  carved.  We  make  hundreds  of  mil- 
lions of  glass  bottles  a  year ;  enough,  it  is  said,  supposing 
each  bottle  to  be  eight  inches  long  and  all  to  be  placed  end 
to  end,  to  go  three  times  around  the  world.     We  manufac- 


Making  cut  glass. 


A   VISIT  TO   A   GLASS   FACTORY  203 

ture  also  millions  of  lamp  chimneys  and  tumblers,  and  a 
great  deal  of  pressed  glass.  The  latter  is  made  in  molds, 
which  are  hot  at  the  time  the  glass  is  poured  in.  The 
pressed  articles  are  afterwards  heated  almost  to  melting  to 
give  them  a  polish. 

In  cut  glassware  the  pieces  are  first  blown  or  pressed 
into  shape,  and  the  designs  are  then  ground  out  by  means 
of  a  wheel  of  soft  steel  or  copper  or  sandstone,  the  cutting 
edge  of  the  wheel  being  fed  with  .water  and  sand  or  emery 
powder.  The  polishing  is  done  on  similar  wheels  made  of 
wood,  fed  with  rouge  or  putty  powder. 

Glass  made  of  lead  and  sand  instead  of  Hme  and  sand  is 
softer  and  more  brilliant  than  other  varieties  and  is  used 
for  cut  glass. 

Colored  glass  is  formed  by  adding  oxides  or  other  forms 
of  various  metals  to  the  batch,  and  mirrors  are  made  by 
coating  one  side  of  the  finished  glass  with  silver.  Mirrors 
were  formerly  coated  with  an  amalgam  of  tin  and  mercury, 
but  the  silver  mirror  is  now  about  the  only  kind  made. 

The  window  glass  making  we  have  seen  has  been  done 
in  tank  furnaces,  a  great  mass  of  glass  being  made  at  a 
time.  In  plate  glass  factories  the  materials  are  melted  in 
great  pots  of  fire  clay,  which  are  filled  with  the  batch  and 
then  inserted  in  the  furnace  where  the  melting  is  done. 
In  such  melting  it  is  important  that  the  pots  be  raised 
to  the  temperature  of  the  furnace  before  the  batch  is 
put  in. 

In  making  glass  the  character  of  the  fuel  is  important. 
It  must  burn  quickly  and  yield  a  long  flame  without 
much  smoke  or  soot,  and  for  this  reason  wood  is 
often  employed.     For  most  kinds  of  glass,  however,  the 


204  PAPER 

common  fuel  is  coal ;  and  natural  gas,  such  as  is  found  in 
Pennsylvania  and  Indiana,  is  greatly  desired.  When  the 
gas  fields  there  were  at  their  best  many  factories  were  es- 
tablished near  them,  but  the  supply  of  gas  has  greatly 
diminished  and  crude  petroleum  and  coal  are  now  used  in 
its  stead. 

24.    PAPER  — WOOD    PULP 

THE  wonders  man  is  actually  working  in  this  world  of 
commerce  and  industry  are  far  greater  than  the  most 
fantastic  dreams  of  the  fairy  tales.  You  may  remember 
Aladdin's  palace,  which  his  genii  built  in  a  night.  The 
palaces  of  steel  which  we  drag  forth  from  under  the  earth 
are  quite  as  remarkable.  The  doings  of  electricity  surpass 
those  of  the  wonderful  lamp  ;  and,  as  for  steam,  it  is  more 
marvelous  than  the  genii  who  rose  in  smoke  from  the  bot- 
tles as  described  in  the  Arabian  Nights.  The  Crystal 
Palace  in  London,  which  was  made  of  real  glass,  would 
have  astonished  Sindbad  the  Sailor,  even  more  than  the 
diamonds  in  the  valley  from  which  he  escaped  by  tying 
himself  to  the  leg  of  the  roc,  that  mighty  bird  as  big  as  an 
elephant.  How  the  whizzing  automobile  of  to-day  would 
have  frightened  the  owner  of  the  seven-league  boots  !  And 
how  quickly  Bellerophon  would  have  jumped  from  the 
flying  horse  Pegasus  could  he  have  had  one  of  our  modern 
airships  in  its  stead  ! 

Suppose  we  were  walking  about  in  a  forest,  and  should 
meet  the  queen  of  the  fairies,  and  ask  her  to  perform  some 
of  her  wonders.  And  suppose  the  fairy  queen  should 
reply  :  "  I  will  turn  these  mighty  trees  into  paper.     That 


PAPER 


205 


giant  poplar  which  now  shades  the  ground,  by  a  stroke  of 
my  wand  I  shall  make  fly  to  the  cities  and  spread  itself 
over  the  inside  walls  of  your  houses  in  sheets  as  thin  and 
as  smooth  as  your  finger  nail.  I  shall  next  touch  that  green 
spruce  beside  it ;  and  lo,  it  will  divide  itself  into  sheets 
making   a   roof   for   your   home,   after   which,   by  another 


command,  that  grove  over  there  shall  be  changed  into 
thousands  of  newspapers  and  books." 

Did  we  not  know  that  these  things  are  actually  done,  we 
might  think  the  fairy  queen  joking,  and  be  amazed  to  see 
them  performed.  It  is  with  such  wonders  that  we  are  to 
(leal  in  the  next  field  of  our  travels. 

Suppose  we  leave  the  United  States  for  a  short  run 
through    the    poplar    and    spruce    forest    belts    of    liritish 


2o6 


PAPER 


America.  These  woods  have  a  soft  fibrous  nature  which 
especially  fits  them  for  making  the  pulp  from  which  the 
most  of  our  wall  papers  come.  Spruce  and  poplar  are  not 
uncommon  trees.  We  have  vast  areas  of  them,  and  they 
are  scattered  here  and  there  through  much  of  our  woods. 
Europe  has  many  such  trees,  and  they  are  found  in  great 


Canadian  spruce  ready  for  paper. 

numbers  in  Russia  and  Finland,  and  on  the  Scandinavian 
Peninsula,  in  all  of  which  regions  thousands  of  men  are 
kept  busy  felling  the  trees  and  grinding  them  up  into 
paper. 

The  greatest  wood  pulp  forests  of  all  are  in  the  Domin- 
ion of  Canada.  There  is  a  wide  belt  which  begins  in  the 
province  of  Quebec  on  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  and  extends 
westward  through  northern  Ontario  to  beyond  the  Great 


PAPER  207 

Lakes.  Newfoundland  has  a  vast  deal  of  pulp  wood,  and 
in  a  single  river  basin  in  Quebec,  enough  trees  are  still 
standing  to  make  more  than  one  hundred  million  tons  of 
such  wood.  Canada  has  more  than  twoscore  mills  which 
are  always  grinding  the  wood  into  pulp,  and  its  output  is 
several  hundred  thousand  tons  every  year.  It  not  only 
makes  a  great  deal  of  pulp  and  paper  for  its  own  people, 
but  it  ships  much  across  the  boundary  to  us. 

As  to  the  United  States,  we  use  more  wood  pulp  than 
any  other  part  of  the  world.  Nine  tenths  of  all  our  paper 
comes  from  trees  of  one  kind  or  other,  and  this  not  only 
from  our  own  forests  but  from  pulp  wood  imported  from 
Canada.  We  have  enormous  mills  in  Maine  and  else- 
where devoted  to  the  industry.  Our  output  is  many  mil- 
Hon  pounds  of  paper  a  day,  and  more,  it  is  said,  than  that 
of  all  the  paper  mills  of  the  rest  of  the  world  put  together. 
Of  this  about  one  fourth  goes  into  newspapers,  some  daily 
journals  needing  so  much  that  a  single  issue  requires  one 
hundred  tons  or  enough  to  clear  the  spruce  forest  from  six 
acres  of  land.  We  "have  a  mill  in  Maine  which  eats  up 
from  fifteen  to  eighteen  acres  of  good  forest  every  twenty- 
four  hours.  The  wood  is  spruce,  and  the  logs  annually 
consumed  are  so  many  that  if  they  could  be  spliced  end  to 
end  they  would  reach  from  the  site  of  the  mill  in  northern 
Maine  to  the  forests  of  Russia,  where  they  are  cutting 
similar  wood  for  the  paper  of  Europe. 

But  suppose  we  visit  the  mills  and  see  for  ourselves 
how  wood  is  turned  into  paper.  There  are  several  in 
Canada  not  far  from  our  boundary,  and  one  of  the  most 
important  is  situated  at  the  falls  of  the  Saint  Marys 
River,  through  which  the  waters  of  Lake  Superior  take 


208 


PAPER 


their  twenty-foot  drop  to  the  level  of  Lake  Huron.  In 
making  wood  pulp  a  high  degree  of  power  is  required,  and 
these  mills  are  near  the  site  of  one  of  the  chief  water 
powers  of  our  continent.  They  are  really  harnessed  to 
Lake  Superior,  and  are  using  part  of  a  force  equal  to  sixty 
thousand  horses  all  pulling  at  once.     The  mills  are  on  the 


It  is  first  sawed  into  blocks  two  feet  in  length. 

Canadian  side  of  the  Falls  and  the  power  for  them  is  trans- 
mitted through  a  canal  into  which  the  water  rushes  at  the 
rate  of  fifty  thousand  gallons  a  second.  It  requires  a  large 
barrel  to  hold  fifty  gallons.  One  of  that  size  full  of  water 
would  weigh  over  four  hundred  pounds,  or  more  than  four 
of  the  fattest  boys  in  our  party.  Now,  if  we  can  imagine 
the  force  that  might  be  created  by  one  thousand  such  bar- 
rels or  four  thousand  boys  dropping  from  the  second  story 
of  a  house  to  the  ground  every  time  the  watch  ticks,  all  day 


PAPER  209 

and  all  night,  and  every  day  and  every  night  the  yeai 
through,  we  can  appreciate  something  of  the  force  of  the 
water  as  it  goes  through  this  canal.  A  great  deal  of  the 
power  is  used  for  other  manufacturing  works  near  by,  but 
much  is  employed  to  run  the  pulp  mills.  The  water  falls 
upon  turbine  wheels,  which  turning,  communicate  the 
motion  to  the  machines  overhead. 

We  first  ask  to  see  the  wood  before  it  goes  into  the 
mills.  It  has  been  cut  during  the  winter  in  the  far-away 
forests,  and  hauled  upon  sleds  to  the  streams  or  the  rail- 
roads. It  is  floated  or  carried  down  to  the  lakes,  and  then 
brought  in  rafts  to  the  mills.  Here  it  is  first  cut  by  a  cir- 
cular saw  into  blocks,  each  about  two  feet  in  length,  after 
which  the  bark  is  shaved  off  by  machinery  consisting  of 
rapidly  revolving  blades  which  make  a  deafening  noise  as 
they  cut  their  way  through.  After  that  the  wood,  now 
clean  and  white,  is  ready  to  be  carried  on  the  endless  belts 
through  the  wide  galvanized  iron  passageway  which  leads 
up  to  the  mill.  If  you  will  imagine  a  round  stick  of  kitchen 
stove  wood  ready  for  splitting,  you  may  have  about  the  size 
of  each  piece. 

We  watch  the  men  throw  the  wood  on  the  belt,  and 
then  go  on  to  see  it  ground  to  a  pulp.  We  enter  a  large 
room  in  which  are  many  small  mills  of  iron  about  eight 
feet  in  diameter,  and  not  more  than  eight  feet  in  height. 
Each  has  a  grindstone  within  it,  and  this  is  so  arranged, 
that  as  the  sticks  fall  in  they  are  forced  against  it  so  that 
the  wood  is  rubbed  off.  The  stones  move  about  at  the  rate 
of  two  hundred  revolutions  a  minute  and  grind  the  wood  as 
though  it  were  cheese.  It  drops  down  as  dust  into  the 
water,  and  when  it  comes  out  it  looks  like  chewed  paper. 

CAKI'.  HOUSES —  14 


2IO  PAPER 

It  is  now  wood  pulp,  and  has  only  to  be  purified  and 
felted  before  it  is  ready  for  the  market.  As  we  look  the 
foreman  opens  one  of  the  mills,  and  asks  us  to  take  up 
some  of  the  pulp.  We  do  so,  and  find  it  quite  hot. 
He  tells  us  that  the  water  flows  into  the  mill  icy  cold,  but 


Inside  a  pulp  mill. 

that  the  friction  of  the  grinding  is  such  that  it  soon  boils 
and  steams. 

After  the  pulp  comes  from  the  mill  it  is  forced  through 
wire  netting  in  order  to  strain  it,  and  is  then  thrown  back 
into  a  tank  of  clean  water  in  which  a  cylinder  covered  with 
wire  gauze  is  revolving.  The  water  passes  through  the 
gauze,  but  the  pulp  sticks  to  the  cylinder,  which,  turning, 
drops  it  upon  an  endless  blanket  where  it  forms  a  coat  and 
is  felted  together.     As  it  goes  on  it  is  dried  and  pressed, 


PAPER  2 1 1 

and  finally  comes  out  in  huge  rolls  ready  for  shipment  all 
over  the  world  to  be  made  into  newspapers  or  perhaps  into 
the  beautifully  colored  wall  papers  we  have  in  our  houses. 
Sometimes  the  pulp  comes  out  as  thick  cardboard,  intended 
to  be  reworked  before  it  is  made  into  paper.  Sometimes 
it  is  in  paper  ready  for  printing,  a  single  sheet  of  which  is 
so  thin  that  four  thousand  pressed  together  are  only  one 
foot  in  height. 

In  another  part  of  the  mill,  wood  pulp  is  made  by  a 
chemical  process.  In  this  there  is  no  grinding  whatever. 
After  the  bark  is  removed,  the  logs  are  cut  into  chips,  and 
then  put  into  an  enormous  steel  tank  or  boiler,  filled  with 
sulphurous  acid  and  steam.  These  eat  into  the  wood  and 
digest  it  as  it  were,  much  as  our  stomachs  digest  food. 
The  temperature  is  about  twice  that  of  boiling  water. 
The  cooking  goes  on  for  eight  or  ten  hours  and  it  finally 
reduces  the  chips  to  a  pulp,  which  is  then  ready  for  the 
manufacture  of  paper. 

Another  process  consists  in  boiling  the  chips  under  pres- 
sure with  a  caustic  soda  and  limewater.  This  produces  a 
dark-colored  pulp  which  is  easily  bleached.  There  is  also 
a  third  process,  by  which  the  wood  chips  are  boiled  under 
pressure  in  sulphate  of  soda. 

It  is  by  such  means  that  not  only  our  wall  papers,  but' 
also  the  greater  part  of  our  newspapers  and  books  are 
dragged  out  of  the  trees  of  the  forest.     In  Shakespeare's 
play  "  As  You  Like  It,"  the  Duke,  while  voicing  the  de- 
lights of  solitude  in  the  forest  of  Arden,  says :  — 

"  And  this  our  life,  exempt  from  public  haunt, 
Finds  tonji;ues  in  trees,  hooks  in  the  running  brooks, 
Sermons  in  stones,  and  good  in  everything." 


212  THE   STORY   OF   PAPER 

Tt  remained,  however,  for  modern  industry  to  make  the 
trees  really  speak,  and,  by  the  water  power  of  the  running 
brook,  to  turn  them  into  printed  books,  such  as  this  we  are 
reading. 

25.     THE   STORY   OF   PAPER 

TO-DAY  we  shall  learn  of  papers  made  of  other  mate- 
rials than  wood  pulp;  and,  going  back  to  the  begin- 
ning of  things,  we  shall  ask  how  man  discovered  that  fibers 
could  be  matted  together  into  the  beautiful  sheets  and  webs 
we  use  for  writing,  printing,  and  house  decoration.  We 
shall  find  that  wood  pulp  is  a  modern  invention,  and  that  it 
is  through  it  alone  that  we  are  able  to  produce  beautiful 
papers  cheaply.  Indeed,  the  papers  made  by  the  ancients 
were  so  costly  that  they  could  be  used  only  for  writing ; 
and  in  the  Middle  Ages  the  parchment  upon  which  books 
Avere  written  was  so  hard  to  get  that  the  works  of  learned 
scholars  were  sometimes  soaked  or  rubbed  off  that  the 
blank  pages  might  be  used  for  new  composition. 

As  to  the  world's  first  paper  makers,  they  were  probably 
not  men  at  all.  They  were  hornets  and  other  wasps  which 
make  their  homes  of  wood  pulp.  Hornets  chew  the 
woody  fibers  and  by  the  aid  of  their  saliva  make  them  into 
a  pulp  of  which  they  build  the  large  oval  nests  found  in 
our  woods.  It  is  possible  some  of  you  may  be  able  to  get 
one  for  your  house-building  museum.  I  warn  you,  how- 
ever, to  be  sure  the  nest  has  been  vacated  before  you  at- 
tempt to  secure  it ;  for  the  little  paper  makers  can  sting 
and  they  will  sally  forth  as  an  army  in  defense  of  their 
homes.     The  color  of  the  nest  is  light  gray,  and  its  outer 


THE   STORY   OF  PAPER 


213 


walls  are  layers  of  paper.  Each  nest  has  a  hole  or  door 
at  the  bottom,  and  its  interior  is  composed  of  floors  filled 
with  combs  supported  by  columns  with  passages  between. 
The  cells  of  the  combs  are  of  the  same  shape  as  those  of 
the  honeybee,  but  the  walls  are  of  paper  instead  of  wax. 
They  are  really  hornets'  apartment  houses,  and  some  single 
ones  are   so  large  that  ,  — x 

they  have  thousands  of 
cells. 

The  first  human  paper 
makers  were  the  Egyp- 
tians, those  ancient 
people  who  lived  in  the 
Nile  Valley  ages  ago, 
and  to  whom  the  world 
owes  so  much  for  the 
beginnings  of  its  civili- 
zation. If  we  could 
cross  the  Atlantic  Ocean 
on  one  of  the  steamers 
which  go  weekly  from 
New  York  to  the  Strait 
of  Gibraltar,  and  thence 
sail  over  the  Mediterra- 
nean Sea  to  Alexandria,  we  might  visit  the  spot  where  was 
the  most  famous  library  of  ancient  times.  This  was  com- 
posed of  scrolls  of  writings  upon  a  paper  known  as  papyrus. 
And  if  we  could  travel  far  up  the  Nile  into  the  Sudan,  we 
should  find  there  vast  swamps  filled  with  papyrus  reeds, 
similar  to  those  from  which  that  first  paper  was  made. 

I   have  seen   much  papyrus  during  my  travels  in  that 


'.'.,^,i.i. 


A  nornets'  nest. 


214 


THE   STORY   OF   PAPER 


part  of  Africa.  It  is  a  tall  slender  reed  which  at  the 
ground  may  be  as  thick  as  the  arm  of  a  man,  and  at  the 
top,  where  it  ends  in  a  great  tassel  of  green,  no  bigger 
around  than  the  finger  of  your  baby  sister.  Some  of  the 
stalks  are  taller  than  a  boy  upon  horseback,  often  reaching 
a  height  of  fifteen  or  more  feet.  Each  reed  has  a  skin, 
surrounding  a  pith  through  which  long  fibers  run. 


Papyrus  reeds  similar  to  those  from  which  the  first  paper  was  made. 

In  making  paper  the  ancient  Egyptians  took  off  the  skin, 
and  sliced  the  pith  into  long  thin  strips.  They  laid  these 
strips  side  by  side,  and  then  placed  other  strips  upon  top  at 
right  angles  to  them.  The  two  layers  were  then  rolled  and 
pressed ;  and  by  the  natural  gum  or  sap  in  the  plant  were 
cemented  into  a  crude  paper,  which,  when  dried  and  rubbed 
smooth,  could  be  used  for  writing. 

After  finishing,  the  paper  was  cut  into  long  rectangular 
sheets,  which  were  rolled  up  and  tied  with  a  string.     The 


THE   STORY   OF   PAPER  21$ 

ordinary  sheet  was  about  twelve  inches  long  and  eight 
inches  wide,  or  of  about  the  size  of  our  foolscap  paper  of 
to-day. 

In  ancient  times  the  papyrus  plant  is  supposed  to  have 
grown  in  lower  Egypt,  and  some  believe  that  the  cradle  or 
ark  in  which  little  Moses  lay  in  the  bulrushes  on  the  edge 
of  the  Nile  was  made  of  it.  We  know  that  it  was  used 
by  the  people  of  that  time  for  making  boats,  boxes,  and 
baskets,  and  that  its  fibers  were  woven  into  mattings  and 
sails. 

The  first  use  of  papyrus  for  writing  was  at  an  earlier 
date  than  3500  b.c.  ;  for  a  manuscript  has  been  found 
which  was  made  at  that  time.  Others  of  the  ancient 
papyrus  writings  have  been  taken  from  the  old  Egyptian 
tombs,  and  there  are  many  such  in  the  world's  great 
museums,  including  that  of  Chicago,  whose  collection  is 
especially  fine. 

Have  you  ever  seen  parchment  ?  It  is  a  tough  paper 
made  of  sheepskin  or  goatskin.  It  is  of  the  same  material 
as  a  drumhead,  but  whiter  and  smoother.  For  many  cen- 
turies it  formed  the  chief  writing  paper  of  Europe,  being 
employed  for  deeds  and  legal  documents  of  all  kinds.  It 
was  used  for  bookmaking,  and  a  volume  the  size  of  this  we 
are  reading  made  of  it  would  have  required  a  large  flock  of 
sheep  or  goats  to  furnish  the  pages. 

The  invention  of  parchment,  says  Pliny  the  Roman, 
came  from  the  rivalry  of  two  ancient  cities.  These  were 
Alexandria  at  the  mouth  of  the  Nile,  and  Pergamus,  which 
lay  across  the  Mediterranean  in  Asia  Minor,  about  fifty 
miles  from  where  Smyrna  now  stands.  By  the  scale  of  miles 
we  can  locate  the  two  towns  on  the  map.     Now  the  Alex- 


2l6 


THE  STORY   OF   PAPER 


audrians  boasted  of  their  magnificent  library,  and  this  made 
the  people  of  Pergamus  jealous  and  they  planned  to  estab- 
lish an  even  greater  one  in  their  city.  Thereupon  Attains, 
the  king  of  Pergamus,  sent  to  Egypt  for  a  great  quantity 
of  papyrus,  and  planned  to  hire  numerous  scholars  who 

should  not  only  copy 
all  the  books  known 
but  write  others  as 
well.  The  Egyp- 
tians, however,  who 
had  a  monopoly  of 
the  papyrus  of  the 
world,  refused  to 
sell  to  the  people 
of  Pergamus  and 
they  were  therefore 
forced  to  secure 
something  else  as  a 
writing  material.  In 
casting  about  for 
this  they  discovered 
the  value  of  sheep- 
skins and  goatskins, 
and  they  prepared 
these  so  well  that 
their  wares  became  famous,  the  skins  being  known  as  per- 
gamena,  from  which  comes  our  word  parchment. 

It  is  doubtful,  however,  whether  sheepskins  were  not 
used  for  writing  long  before  that ;  for  we  know  that  men 
had  written  upon  skins  of  various  kinds  prior  to  the  found- 
ing of  Pergamus.     For  instance,  there  was  in  one  of  the 


Japanese   interior,  the    rooms  have  movable 
screens  of  paper. 


THE   STORY   OF   PAPER  217 

ancient  Egyptian  libraries,  so  a  historian  says,  a  manu- 
script of  snakes'  skins  upon  which  in  letters  of  gold  were 
written  the  works  of  Homer,  the  poet,  who  described 
the  adventures  of  Ulysses,  and  told  all  about  the  flying 
horse  Pegasus,  the  horrid  Minotaur,  and  the  wicked  Circe, 
who  changed  men  into  hogs. 

But  however  that  may  be,  parchment  continued  to  be 
used  as  a  paper  for  many  centuries  after  Pergamus  was 
forgotten  ;  and  even  now  it  is  sometimes  employed  for 
college  diplomas  and  important  state  papers.  It  is  also 
used  for  costly  book  bindings. 

In  making  parchment  the  skins  are  soaked  in  a  lime  pit 
until  the  hair  can  be  taken  off.  They  are  next  stretched 
upon  a  square  wooden  frame,  and  scraped  with  sharp  in- 
struments until  they  are  perfectly  smooth.  They  are  then 
rubbed  with  pumice  stone  and  chalk,  until  at  last  they 
are  as  smooth  as  glazed  paper.  By  this  process  the  skins 
are  reduced  to  less  than  half  their  original  thickness ;  they 
shine  like  ivory  and  are  given  a  surface  which  will  take 
the  ink  easily. 

It  is  to  the  Chinese,  that  great  people  who  invented  the 
compass,  gunpowder,  and  printing,  that  we  are  indebted 
for  our  first  knowledge  of  paper  made  of  wood  pulp.  Just 
when  the  Chinese  discovered  how  to  make  such  paper  is 
not  known  ;  but  they  were  manufacturing  it  from  the  mul- 
berry tree  while  Europe  was  still  using  parchment.  It  is 
said  that  the  Arabs,  who  conquered  much  of  west  Asia, 
discovered  the  secret  during  one  of  their  campaigns,  and 
that  they  introduced  paper  making  into  the  towns  and 
cities  of  Asia  Minor.  The  Crusaders  and  others  who 
visited  that  region  brought  the  art  into  Europe. 


21 8  THE   STORY   OF   PAPER 

Such  paper  was  common  in  France  before  Columbus 
discovered  America,  and  for  a  long  time  the  French  and 
Dutch  were  the  chief  paper  makers  of  Europe.  The 
Chinese  papers  had  been  made  almost  altogether  from 
the  inner  bark  of  the  paper  mulberry  tree,  boiled  and 
thus  reduced  to  a  pulp.  After  that  the  fibers  were  col- 
lected and  felted  on  a  framework  or  sieve  of  fine  strips  of? 
bamboo.  This  was  dipped  into  the  pulp  in  such  a  way 
that  when  the  water  drained  off  the  fibers  were  felted 
together.  The  sheets  were  then  stripped  from  the  sieve, 
and  dried  in  the  sun.  After  that  they  were  smoothed  and 
pressed  out  for  use. 

The  people  of  Europe  had  but  few  mulberry  trees,  and 
they  soon  began  to  make  paper  of  other  materials.  In 
Spain  they  used  flax  and  then  cotton,  and  after  a  time  it 
was  discovered  that  excellent  paper  could  be  made  out  of 
rags.  Indeed,  until  within  recent  times  the  greater  part 
of  the  paper  of  the  world  was  made  of  worn-out  clothing 
of  cotton  and  linen. 

The  first  paper  used  in  America  was  of  linen  rags,  and 
our  first  mill  was  established  at  Germantown,  near  Phila- 
delphia, its  product  being  only  a  few  pounds  of  paper  a 
day.  In  those  times  paper  was  scarce,  and  rags  were  in 
great  demand.  In  a  Boston  newspaper,  published  in  1769, 
it  is  stated  that  "  the  bell  cart  will  go  through  Boston  be- 
fore the  end  of  the  month  to  collect  rags  for  the  paper 
mills  at  Milton,"  and  the  editors  requested  that  the  women 
encourage  the  business  by  saving  their  rags.  In  1776 
Massachusetts  made  a  law  that  certain  men  in  each  of  its 
towns  should  be  appointed  to  collect  rags  for  the  mills,  and 
the  people  were  asked  to  save  them  in  order  that  the  new 


THE   STORY   OF   PAPER  219 

country  might  have  the  paper  needed  for  printing,  gun 
wadding,  and  other  purposes. 

After  the  Revolution,  our  paper  mills  increased  rapidly. 
Machines  were  invented  for  beating  the  pulp  and  for 
weaving  or  felting  it  into  a  continuous  sheet.  The  latter 
process  was  the  Fourdrinier  invention,  an  endless  web  of 
wire  gauze,  supported  on  horizontal  rollers.  This  enabled 
the  liquid  pulp  to  be  felted  into  an  endless  sheet  of  paper, 
and  so  treated  that  it  came  out  polished  and  cut  into  sheets. 
The  same  machinery,  somewhat  improved,  is  used  to-day. 
It  is  like  that  we  saw  in  the  mills  making  wood  pulp.  The 
pulp  goes  in  at  one  end  of  the  machine,  and  comes  out  at 
the  other  a  finished  paper,  either  in  sheets  or  wound  in 
the  immense  rolls  which  are  used  for  our  newspapers  and 
books.  Paper  may  be  colored  by  adding  dyes  to  the  pulp  ; 
and  the  watermark  in  it  is  often  produced  by  a  sHghtly 
raised  design  on  the  wire  gauze  of  the  machine.  This 
makes  the  paper  a  very  little  thinner  along  the  lines  of  the 
pattern,  and  thus  forms  the  watermark. 

Some  of  our  finest  writing  papers  are  made  of  rags, 
which  we  import  not  only  from  Europe  but  from  Asia  and 
elsewhere ;  so  that  the  tinted  notes  upon  which  we  send 
out  invitations  to  parties  may  be  composed  of  the  cast-off 
clothing  of  savages.  The  rags  come  to  the  mills  in  huge 
bales  and  are  thrown  into  the  thresher,  a  round  machine  in 
which  they  are  pounded  and  torn  into  bits,  the  dust  being 
carried  off  through  air  tubes.  After  that  they  are  sorted 
by  women  and  girls,  and  the  buttons,  hooks,  and  eyes  are 
removed. 

The  rags  are  then  cut  into  pieces  by  machinery,  when 
they  are  again  whipped  until  all  the  dust  and  dirt  have  gone 


220 


THE   STORY   OF   TAPER 


out.  The  next  process  is  boiling  them,  under  steam  pres- 
sure, in  a  mixed  solution  of  lime,  soda,  and  water.  This 
makes  the  rags  as  white  as  snow,  but  they  are  still  further 
washed,  beaten,  and  cut,  being  finally  reduced  to  a  pulp 
from  which  the  paper  is  made. 

In  addition  to  the  papers  we  have  seen,  there  are  some 
made  of  straw,  cornstalks,  jute,  rope  ends,  and  other  fibrous 
materials  of  various  kinds.     The  English  make  an  excel- 
lent printing  paper 
of  the  esparto  grass 
which     grows     in 
northern     Africa 
along  the  edges  of 
the    Sahara,  and   is 
brought  to  the  ports 
upon   camels.     The 
Japanese    make 
paper   of   bamboo 
fibers  and  they  have 
various  kinds  of  plants  which  they  raise  for  this  purpose. 

The  chief  paper  employed  in  building,  however,  comes 
from  wood  pulp.  This  is  so  not  only  of  that  which  covers 
our  walls,  but  of  the  thick,  coarse  sheets  used  for  Hning  the 
inside  framework  of  our  houses  and  those  coated  with  tar 
and  other  materials,  which  compose  the  various  kinds  of 
paper  roofing  everywhere  sold. 

Much  of  the  wall  paper  is  colored  and  printed  in  beauti- 
ful patterns,  some  of  which  are  so  raised  that  they  look  like 
stamped  leather.  This  is  done  upon  presses  of  various 
kinds,  the  paper  running  through  one  set  of  rollers  after 
another,  each  roller  printing  one  of  the  colors  used  in  the 


Loaded   with   esparto    grass    to   be   used  for 
making  paper. 


PAINTS,   OILS,   AND   VARNISHES  221 

design.  When  the  wall  paper  comes  from  the  press,  it 
has  only  to  be  dried  and  cut  into  the  lengths  required  for 
the  market.  Other  fine  papers  are  printed  by  hand  from 
blocks.  In  this  process  a  separate  block  is  engraved  for 
each  color,  and  the  printer  impresses  the  design  upon  the 
roll,  handling  the  blocks  so  carefully  that  the  finished  pic- 
tures appear  to  have  been  printed.  Gold  and  bronze  papers 
are  often  made  in  this  way,  and  velvety  papers  are  pro- 
duced by  using  the  beautifully  colored  waste  of  the  silk 
mills,  the  floss  being  cut  fine  and  pressed  into  the  design  by 
the  aid  of  an  ink  to  which  the  silk  sticks. 

26.    PAINTS,    OILS,    AND   VARNISHES 

WE  must  put  on  rough  clothes  for  our  travels  to-day. 
We  may  as  well  roll  up  our  sleeves  and  go  as 
poorly  clad  as  we  can.  Those  who  are  especially  dainty 
had  better  wear  gloves,  and  the  Miss  Nancys  among  us 
might  don  aprons  as  well.  We  are  to  travel  in  the  world 
of  paints,  oils,  and  varnishes,  and  some  of  our  journeys  may 
be  not  overclean. 

We  have  already  seen  that  these  homes  of  ours,  which 
we  have  taken  so  much  as  a  matter  of  course,  are  really 
museums  composed  of  wonderful  things  which  have  come 
from  far-away  places  and  through  many  different  adven- 
tures. With  the  lumber  we  have  traveled  through  the 
wilds  of  the  forest,  and  with  building  stones  and  the  metals 
have  gone  down  under  the  earth  into  the  quarries  and 
mines.  Like  the  Hebrew  children  we  have  passed  through 
the  fiery  furnace  in  the  manufacture  of  glass,  and  in  our 


222  PAINTS,   OILS,   AND   VARNISHES 

Study  of  paper  have  crossed  the  oceans  to  China  and  trav- 
eled from  the  papyrus  swamps  of  the  Nile  to  the  woods  of 
spruce  and  poplar  along  the  Great  Lakes. 

The  stories  of  paints,  oils,  and  varnishes  are  likewise 
full  of  variety,  and  will  necessitate  our  going  to  other  parts 
of  the  world.  The  materials  in  them  embrace  the  mineral 
and  vegetable  kingdoms  ;  and,  with  the  brushes  used  in 
laying  them  on,  the  animal  kingdom  as  well. 

Most  of  our  paints  are  from  pigments,  which  are  mineral 
or  organic  bodies  that  can  be  ground  up  and  mixed  with  oil, 
water,  or  spirits,  in  such  a  way  that  they  can  be  spread 
over  wood  metal  or  other  materials,  giving  them  a  color 
corresponding  to  the  pigments  used.  The  color  of  the 
pigment  depends  upon  the  amount  and  kind  of  light  which 
it  reflects ;  and,  according  to  this,  it  may  be  of  almost  any 
hue  or  tint  of  the  rainbow.  The  chief  pigments  are  whites, 
blues,  greens,  yellows,  reds,  browns,  and  blacks,  all  of  which 
have  many  divisions. 

Pigments  form  the  basis  of  our  paints  of  various  kinds, 
the  paint  consisting  of  the  pigment  mixed  with  some  drying 
oil  or  spirits  containing  a  gum  or  size.  After  painting,  the 
oils  or  spirits  evaporate  or  become  dry,  leaving  the  pigment 
which  gives  the  color  and  with  the  gum  or  size  preserves 
the  material  upon  which  the  paint  is  spread. 

Pigments  come  from  so  many  different  sources  that  we 
have  not  time  to  examine  them  all.  There  are  some, 
however,  which  are  more  important  than  others,  and  the 
chief  of  these  is  white  lead.  That  substance  combines 
easily  with  linseed  oil,  and  can  thus  be  spread  over  wood, 
iron,  and  steel,  giving  them  a  tight  coat  which  keeps  out 
the  sun  and  rain. 


PAINTS,   OILS,   AND   VARNISHES 


223 


If  you  will  go  back  in  your  mind  to  our  travels  in  the 
mines,  you  may  see  where  lead  comes  from  and  how 
difficult  it  is  to  take  it  out  of  the  earth.  At  first  thought 
one  might  say  it  would  be  impossible  to  secure  enough  of 
it   to    cover    the    houses  of  even  one  mighty  city.     And 


Paint  mixing  and  grinding  room. 

indeed,  it  would  be  so  were  the  metal  laid  on  in  sheets  or 
plates.  It  is  different,  however,  with  lead  when  used  as 
paint.  In  this  shape  the  houses  of  not  only  one  city  but  of 
hundreds  of  cities  are  covered  with  lead.  Each  of  our 
homes  has  more  or  less  of  it  in  one  form  or  other.  It 
coats  both  steel  and  wood,  and  guards  them  from  the 
demons  of  rust  and  decay. 


224  PAINTS,   OILS,   AND   VARNISHES 

Of  all  the  lead  pigments,  white  lead  is  by  far  the  most 
important.  It  was  used  by  the  Romans  as  a  body  for 
various  paints,  not  only  for  buildings  but  even  cosmetics. 
Indeed,  the  Roman  ladies  are  said  to  have  spread  lead  on 
their  cheeks  to  improve  their  complexions.  Later  on  white 
lead  was  made  by  the  Dutch,  and  when  our  country  was 
settled,  a  white  lead  industry  began  here.  This  increased 
rapidly  as  our  lead  mines  were  discovered,  and  we  have 
now  many  factories  for  making  lead  paints.  We  have  also 
some  devoted  to  paints  made  of  other  pigments,  and 
all  together  thousands  of  men  are  engaged  in  the  paint- 
making  industry. 

In  manufacturing  white  lead,  sheets  of  the  metal  are 
thrown  into  vats  containing  an  acid,  or  they  are  exposed 
to  the  vapor  of  an  acid  similar  to  vinegar.  This  corrodes 
the  metal,  forming  acetate  of  lead.  The  acetate  is  ground 
fine  and  mixed  with  a  small  percentage  of  linseed  oil, 
making  the  paint  we  know  as-white  lead.  It  is  put  up  in 
cans,  kegs,  buckets,  and  barrels  to  be  sold.  White  lead  is 
also  made  by  other  processes,  but  those  in  which  acid  is 
used  have  been  known  for  hundreds  of  years  and  are  still 
most  largely  employed. 

Red  lead  is  the  oxide  of  lead.  It  is  employed  not  only 
in  painting,  but  also  in  glassmaking  and  in  tightening  or 
filling  the  joints  of  plumbing  or  piping.  Litharge  is  a 
yellow  lead  oxide,  made  by  melting  the  lead  under  a  great 
heat  in  rapidly  revolving  cast-iron  vessels. 

In  addition  to  these  lead  pigments  we  have  many  com- 
posed of  various  other  metals  and  substances.  There  are 
blue  pigments  made  of  copper  and  cobalt,  and  also  ultra- 
marine, whose  material  is  of  about  the  same  nature  as  the 


PAINTS,   OILS,   AND   VARNISHES  225 

beautiful  stone  known  as  lapis  lazuli.  Prussian  blue  is  a 
compound  containing  iron,  and  indigo  comes  from  the  juice 
of  a  reed  which  grows  abundantly  in  Java  and  India. 

The  green  pigments  come  largely  from  copper,  and  the 
yellows  are  from  lead  and  zinc  and  from  certain  kinds  of 
iron  and  other  metals.  Some  of  the  chief  reds  are  from 
lead,  mercury,  and  arsenic,  while  the  browns  are  likewise 
largely  from  metals. 

An  odd  pigment  is  the  sepia,  a  brown  which  comes  from 
the  cuttlefish.  That  fish  has  a  small  bag  or  sac  inside  it 
where  it  secretes  a  brown,  inklike  fluid  which  it  gives  out 
when  attacked  or  disturbed.  The  liquid  discolors  the 
water  about  it,  and  it  can  thus  hide  its  movements.  In 
preparing  the  pigment,  the  fish  is  caught,  and  the  sac 
carefully  removed  and  dried.  It  is  next  dissolved  in 
caustic  soda,  and  so  treated  with  acid  that  it  can  be  used 
for  paint  making. 

The  black  pigments  are  nearly  all  based  upon  carbon, 
the  same  substance  found  so  largely  in  coal.  The  most 
important  is  lampblack,  which  is  made  of  soot  of  various 
kinds  such  as  that  from  the  smoke  of  pine  and  hemlock 
or  from  that  of  petroleum  or  other  mineral  oils.  In  making 
lampblack  the  burning  is  carefully  done,  the  soot  being 
caught  in  a  series  of  chambers  through  which  the  smoke 
goes.  Bone  black  is  made  of  burnt  bone,  ivory  black  of 
ivory,  and  some  other  blacks  of  charcoal  ground  fine. 
Blacks  are  also  manufactured  out  of  iron  and  copper, 
treated  in  various  ways. 

Is  it  not  wonderful  how  man  has  called  upon  the  genii 
of  the  mineral  kingdom  to  give  him  metals  to  preserve 
and  beautify  the  home  he  lives  in  ?     Yes,  but  we  must  re- 

CARl'.  HOUSES —  15 


226 


PAINTS,   OILS,   AND   VARNISHES 


member  that  these  genii  have  required  other  genii  to  aid 
them.  They  have  worked  in  connection  with  their  brothers 
of  the  vegetable  kingdom  who  have  furnished  the  turpen- 
tine, hnseed  oil,  and  other  such  things  without  which  the 
pigments,  however  fine  they  might  be  ground,  could  not  be 
used.     Indeed,  we  are  indebted  for  our  paints  to  these 

materials  almost  as 
much  as  to  the  pig- 
ments themselves. 

Linseed  oil  is  pressed 
from  the  seed  of  the 
flax  plant,  the  fibers  of 
which  give  us  our  linen. 
The  seeds  are  cleaned 
and  then  ground  into 
meal.  After  that  they 
are  steamed  and  then 
packed  up  in  bags  of 
pure  camel's  hair. 
While  in  the  bags  they 
are  placed  in  huge 
presses  which,  exerting 
a  force  equal  to  two 
tons  per  square  inch,  cause  the  oil  in  the  seeds  to  flow  out. 
It  is  then  filtered  and  run  off  into  tanks  ready  to  be  barreled 
for  the  painters. 

Linseed  oil  is  used  in  three  different  forms  —  raw,  boiled, 
and  refined.  Raw  oil  is  the  oil  as  it  comes  from  the  press. 
Boiled  oil  is  the  raw  oil  cooked  over  a  fire  with  certain 
chemicals  added  to  increase  its  drying  properties ;  and  re- 
fined oil  IS  so  treated  that  it  can  be  used  for  varnish  in 


Crushing  llaxbccd  in  presses. 


PAINTS,   OILS,   AND  VARNISHES 


227 


m 


connection  with  gums  and  other  materials.  Raw  oil  is 
largely  used  in  paint  grinding,  and  every  year  millions  of 
gallons  of  it  are  spread  over  our  homes  in  the  form  of  mixed 
paints.  In  every  hundred  pounds  of  white  lead  there  are 
a  little  more  than  seven  gallons  of  oil,  so  that  oil  is  used 
more  or  less  upon  every  room  we  live  in. 

This  oil,  boiled  or  refined,  is  also  employed  in  the  manu- 
facture of  linoleum  and 
oilcloth.  The  oiled  suits 
worn  by  sailors  and  fisher- 
men are  soaked  in  it,  and 
it  is  used  in  making  pa- 
tent leather  shoes  and  in 
other  kinds  of  dressed 
leathers.  It  forms  a  part 
of  our  carriage  tops  and 
is  also  employed  in  mak- 
ing oiled  silk.  Mixed 
with  ink,  it  comes  before 
our  eyes  daily  as  we  read 
the  newspapers,  and  it  is 
likely  that  the  print  on 
this  page  has  some  hnsecd  oil  in  it.  The  paint  industry, 
however,  consumes  the  greater  part  of  the  product,  de- 
manding so  much  that  the  oil  manufacture  employs  mil- 
lions of  capital  and  consumes  a  vast  deal  of  seed.  The 
mills  for  making  linseed  oil  are  scattered  here  and  there 
over  the  United  States,  the  chief  centers  of  its  manufacture" 
being  at  Buffalo,  Chicago,  Minneapolis,  and  New  York. 

But  suppose  we  go  to  our  great  Southern    forest  and 
take  a  look  at  the  long-leafed  pine  trees,  from  the  sap  of 


Gathering  pine  sap  for  turpentine. 


228 


PAINTS,   OILS,   AND   VARNISHES 


which  comes  turpentine,  another  material  used  largely  in 
the  mixing  of  varnish  and  paint.  Turpentine  will  thin  all 
kinds  of  paints,  and  it  is  an  excellent  drier  and  mixer.  It 
is  also  employed  in  the  making  of  varnish.  In  gather- 
ing the  sap,  the  trunks  of  the  trees  are  scarred  with  axes 
to  a  point  several  feet  from  the  ground.     Then  a  box  or 


Loading  turpentine  barrels. 

hole  is  chopped  out  at  the  foot  of  the  tree  into  which  the  sap 
runs  and  is  caught ;  or  tin  troughs  are  fastened  in  below  the 
scars  and  a  clay  jar  placed  below  them.  The  latter  method 
is  recommended  by  our  Government  Forestry  Bureau.  It 
is  by  far  the  better,  as  it  does  not  injure  the  tree,  which  is 
soon  destroyed  if  the  boxes  are  cut  in  it,  year  after  year. 
Every  few  days  the  men  come  along  with  scoops  and 
take  out  the  sap,  which  having  been  exposed  to  the 
air  is  almost  as  thick  as  molasses.     They  put  the  sap  into 


PAINTS,   OILS.   AND   VARNISHES 


229 


barrels  and  carry  it  to  the  turpentine  distilleries,  which  are 
great  sheds  in  the  forest  under  which  kettles  are  boiling. 
The  kettles  are  closed  at  the  top,  and  from  them  metallic 
pipes  run  out  in  a  coil,  over  which  cold  water  pours.  Pine 
tree  sap  is  composed  of  turpentine  and  resin.     After  it  is 


Making  varnish. 

thrown  into  the  kettle,  the  boiling  drives  out  the  turpen- 
tine in  the  form  of  vapor,  which  rises  and  passes  off  into 
the  pipes  kept  cool  by  the  water.  As  the  vapor  strikes  their 
cold  surface  it  condenses  and  changes  to  a  liquid  which  flows 
out  at  the  other  end  of  the  coil  in  the  pure  white  spirits 
of  turpentine  we  use  for  jxiinting.  Some  of  the  turi)entine 
farms,  as  these  pine  woods  are  called,  have  thousands  of 
trees,  and  many  men  are  employed  in  gathering  the  sap. 


230 


PAINTS,   OILS,   AND   VARNISHES 


There  are  other  gums  in  addition  to  that  of  the  long- 
leafed  pine  which  are  much  used  in  the  making  of  varnish. 
Copal  is  gathered  from  the  trees  of  the  island  of  Mozam- 
bique and  other  parts  of  Africa,  being  brought  to  the 
ports   along   the   seacoast   for   sale.      Kauri   gum    comes 


Storage  house  for  varnish. 

from  the  northern  part  of  New  Zealand,  being  derived  from 
a  pine  tree  of  that  name.  It  is  often  found  in  the  swamps, 
having  oozed  out  of  trees  which  died  ages  ago.  It  is  found 
there  in  lumps,  weighing  from  a  few  ounces  to  one  hundred 
pounds  each,  and  it  brings  such  high  prices  that  men  go 
about  through  the  swamps  and  thrust  down  into  the  earth 
with  sharp  iron  rods  to  find  where  it  lies. 

Kauri  gum  looks  like  white  resin  and  some  of  the  lumps 
resemble  the  most  beautiful  amber,  which  is  a  fossil  resin 


PAINTS,  OILS,   AND   VARNISHES 


231 


largely  mined  on  the  Prussian  shores  of  the  Baltic  Sea. 
Amber  is  sometimes  used  to  make  varnish,  but  it  is  so 
beautiful  that  it  brings  higher  prices  as  beads,  pendants, 
and  jewelry  of  various  kinds.     The  Romans  thought  that 


The  Kauri  pine  tree  from  the  g 


UIU     Ul     v/l 


lich  varnish  is  made. 


a  necklace  of  amber  would  ward  off  the  witches  and  pro- 
tect the  wearer  from  poisons.  It  was  much  esteemed  for 
ornaments  and  charms,  and  Pliny  says  that  in  those  days, 
when  men  were  bought  and  sold  as  slaves,  a  little  image 
of  amber  would  often  bring  a  higher  price  than  a  live 
man,  even  though  the  latter  were  stout  and  in  vigorous 
health. 


232 


bUILDING   A   HOME 


27.    BUILDING   A   HOME 

WE   have   all  read  of   the   troubles  Robinson  Crusoe 
had  in  making  his  home  on  the  desert  island.      He 
first  used  a  cave,  like  the  cave  dwellers  of  early  times; 
and  afterwards,  bit  by  bit,  with  the  aid  of  his  black  man, 
Friday,  he  built  up   his  house  and  made  it  quite  comfort- 
able.    He  had  but  few 
tools  and  was  forced  to 
all   sorts   of   makeshifts 
to  accomplish  his  ends. 
We  shall  now  imagine 
ourselves  to  be  a  party 
of  house  builders.     But 


"  We  are  ready  to  talk  of  the  house  and 
the  plans." 

not  like  Robinson  Crusoe, 
for  we  shall  perform  the 
work  of  construction,  not 
on  a  desert  island,  but  sur- 
rounded by  all  the  conven-  U 
iences,  finished  materials, 
modern  machinery,  and  skilled  workmen  of  the  most  ad- 
vanced people  on  earth.  We  shall  not  be  able,  like  Alad- 
din of  the  Wonderful  Lamp,  to  order  a  palace  to-night 
and  find  it  finished  and  furnished  next  morning,  but  we 
shall  have  all  the  advantages  of  modern  civilization. 

How  shall  we  start  in  the  making  of  our  home  .'*     The 
first  thing  is  the  site  or  place  where  the  house  is  to  stand. 


BUILDING   A   HOME  233 

In  the  country  or  where  land  is  comparatively  cheap, 
we  should  select  a  large  space  with  plenty  of  ground  all 
around,  or  if  in  the  city  we  might  be  confined  to  a  lot  so 
small  that  the  house  would  cover  it  all.  The  first  thing 
in  each  case  would  be  to  buy  the  ground,  and  to  see  that 
we  had  a  clear  title  of  ownership  to  it.  This  is  important, 
for  if  we  cannot  prove  that  we  own  it,  some  one  may 
raise  the  doubt  and  even  after  we  have  built  force  us  to 
leave.  Our  parents  can  tell  us  how  land  is  bought  and 
sold,  and  how  in  the  public  offices  records  are  kept  of 
every  tract  which  is  transferred  from  one  man  to  another. 
One  form  of  the  record  of  such  a  transfer  is  shown  on  the 
following  page. 

After  having  satisfied  ourselves  with  the  lot  and  its  title, 
we  are  ready  to  talk  of  the  house  and  the  plans.  It  will 
not  do  to  start  building  until  we  know  just  what  we  want. 
This  can  be  shown  by  plans  drawn  to  a  scale  and 
accompanied  by  written  explanations  or  specifications  of 
all  the  materials  and  how  they  are  to  be  used.  We  may 
get  these  of  an  architect,  whose  business  it  is  to  make  plans 
for  houses.  If  we  lell  him  our  needs  he  will  furnish  a 
design  of  the  kind  of  a  dwelling  that  will  supply  them.  He 
may  charge  us  so  much  for  the  plans,  or  may  say  that  for 
an  additional  sum  he  will  also  superintend  the  construction, 
and  see  that  they  are  -carried  out.  The  architect's  charge  is 
sometimes  a  percentage  on  what  the  house  costs.  If  the 
house  is  small,  and  we  know  pretty  well  what  it  should  con- 
tain, we  may  make  the  plans  ourselves,  although  this  is  not 
advisable  unless  we  have  had  some  experience  in  building. 

After  the  plans  and  specifications  are  prepared,  they  may 
be  let  out  to  a  builder  who  will  contract  to   put   up  the 


ghfe  Sttdenturc, 


'^  madeth«     fifteenth  dot 

cf      September  in  llt^  year  nineteen  hundred      aSli  f  Ive 

SctWCCn      Charles  A.  Drake,  unmarried,   of  Geneva,  Ontario  county, 

New  Yoris,  party  of  the  first  part,  and  Edward  Simmons,  of 

Rochester,  Monroe  County,  New  York,  party       cf the ucond part. 

T!OlitnC00Ctb,  That  the  said  party  ef  the  first  part,  in  consider atian  of        the   Bum    of 

two         thousand       (2,000)  dMars.lawfal  money 

of  the  UniUd  States,  paid  by  the  party         efthe  second  part,  doeS  hereby  grant  and  release 

unto  the  said  party         of  the  second  paH,     his    heirs  and  assigns  for  ever. 

fill  that  Tract  or  Parcel  of  land  situate  in  the  City  of  Rochester, 
County  of  Wonroe,   and  State  of  New  York,    and  more  particularly 
distinguished  as  lot  numher  twenty  (20),  as  laid  down  on  a  map 
of  Snyder  &  Stone's  suhdivision  of  a  part  of  the  Strong  Tract 
on  file     In  Monroe  County  Clerk's  Office  in  Liter  5  of  Maps  at 
page  83.       Said  lot  numher  twenty  (20)   is   situate  on  the  east 
side  of  Kenmore  Street,  and  is  thirty-three  (33)  feet  in  width, 
front  and  rear,   and  one  hundred  and  fifty-nine   (159)  feet  deep 

SOQCtbCr  with  the  appurtenanoee  and  all  the  estate  and  rights  of  the  part  y        of  the  first 

part  in  ojwi  to  said  premises, 

^0  "to&VC  an&  to  1bOl5  the  aoove  granted  premises  unto  the  said  party     of  the  second  part, 

his   heirs           and  assigns  forever, 
%n^  the  said       Charles  A.   Crake, 


part  y     of  the  first  part,  do  es       covenant  with  said  part  y         of  the  second  part  as  follows; 

^rst.    That  the  said     Charles  A.  Drake, 

part  y  nf  the  first  part,  igseizei  of  tJie  said  prem.ises  in  fee  simple  and  haS   good  right  to  coKvey 
the  same. 

SCCOn^.     That  the  part  y      of  the  second  part  shall  quietly  enjoy  the  said  premise*. 

ftPirt>.     ITiat  tlie  said  premises  are  free  from  incumbrances. 

JOUrtb.       That  the  party        of  the  first  part  wCa  exeeuie  or  procure  any  fuHher  necettary 
assurance  of  the- title  to  said  primises. 

Iflftb.    That  the  said     Charles  A.  Drake, ■ _____^.^__ 

part  y     of  the  first  part,  will  forever  warrant  the  title  to  said  premises. 

In  MitneSS  MberCOf,  the  said  pan  y     of  the  first  paH  hae      hereunto  set    his 
hand    and  seal    the  day  and  year  first  alwve  written. 
In  presence  of 


oM^Udif^ 


(234)  "Records  are  kept  of  every  tract." 


BUILDING  A  HOME 


235 


nouse  at  a  fixed  price  or  on  a  commission.  If  this  is  done, 
the  builder  will  buy  the  materials,  hire  the  workmen,  and 
agree  to  deliver  the  house  to  us  completed  within  a  certain 
fixed  time.  He  is  under  the  superintendence  of  the  architect, 
who  sees  that  the  plans  are  carried  out  in  all  of  their  details. 

As  to  the  construction  of  the  house,  this  depends  so 
much  upon  its  location,  character,  size,  and  the  materials 
of  which  it  is  built,  that 
the  description  of  any 
one  dwelling  will  not 
give  us  a  rule  for  all 
others.  The  building 
conditions  differ  greatly 
in  city  and  country,  and 
the  house  whose  founda- 
tion is  on  the  sand  re- 
quires things  not  needed 
by  that  which  stands  on 
a  rock.  Houses  of  wood 
are  not  built  Hke  houses 
of  brick  or  stone,  and 
the  great  steel  structure 
is  unlike  any  other.  In- 
deed, each  of  our  dwell- 
ings is  to  a  certain  extent  of  its  own  kind,  although  it  has 
many  things  which  are  common  to  all. 

First  every  house  must  have  its  foundation,  its  walls, 
and  its  roof.  The  foundation  must  be  firm  and  evenly 
fixed  in  the  earth  or  the  house  may  sink  or  lean  like 
the  great  Tower  at  Pisa,  and  perhaps  topple  over.  The 
foundation  may  be  on   firm  ground  or  if  the  house  must 


Building  a  skyscraper. 


236  BUILDIXG   A   HOME 

Stand  where  the  earth  is  not  firm,  piles  may  be  driven 
down  to  make  a  foundation.  This  is  the  case  in  Amster- 
dam, where  Erasmus  said  the  people  lived  like  birds  on 
the  tree  tops.  In  our  own  country,  buildings  in  marshy 
or  swampy  places  are  often  erected  upon  foundations  of 
concrete  and  iron.  This  is  so  in  parts  of  Chicago,  where 
on  the  soft  ground  near  the  lakes,  steel  rails  are  laid 
down  and  filled  in  with  cement,  and  other  rails  laid  above 
crisscross  or  at  right  angles,  similarly  filled,  until  a  great 
solid  block  is  formed  upon  which  the  house  rests.  Even 
greater  precautions  are  required  for  the  heavy  steel  struc- 
tures called  skyscrapers,  as  we  shall  see  later  on. 

And  then  the  walls  of  our  houses  !  They  vary  from 
those  in  our  massive  stone  buildings,  two  feet  or  more  in 
thickness,  to  the  tall  office  structures,  which  often  consist 
of  a  framework  of  steel  with  only  a  thin  veneering  of  brick 
or  stone  to  keep  out  the  weather.  We  have  walls  of  wood, 
stone,  brick,  and  concrete,  and  even  sheet  iron. 

It  is  the  same  with  the  roofs.  They  are  of  many  ma- 
terials, each  made  and  put  on  in  its  own  way.  Thousands 
of  our  buildings  are  covered  with  shingles  from  Oregon  and 
Washington,  and  other  thousands  are  protected  by  tin  or 
galvanized  iron.  We  have  roofs  of  boards,  slate,  and 
glass.  We  have  some  of  terra  cotta  tiles,  glazed  like  fine 
china ;  and  roofs  of  paper  covered  with  asphalt  or  pitch  upon 
which  have  been  sprinkled  pebbles  or  sand.  Indeed,  the 
manufacture  of  roofing  materials  alone  forms  an  important 
industry,  employing  and  supporting  a  great  many  people. 

But  the  foundation,  walls,  and  the  roof  are  merely  the 
shells  of  our  dwelling.  They  aid  in  keeping  out  the  rain 
and  sun,  but  alone  they  would  not  form  a  much  better 


BUILDING   A   HOME  237 

home  than  that  of  the  cave  men.  Indeed,  we  require 
so  many  things  in  addition  that  our  houses  are  very- 
beehives  of  invention.  They  must  have  floors  and  ceil- 
ings, windows  and  doors,  stairways  from  story  to  story, 
and  arrangements  of  various  kinds  for  cooking,  heating, 
and  lighting,  as  well  as  for  the  water  supply. 

All  these  things  should  be  provided  for  in  the  plans;  and 
in  the  cities  or  towns  each  class  of  house  building  is  done 
by  men  who  will  do  little  else.  The  foundations  and 
brick  or  stone  walls  must  be  laid  up  by  masons,  the  wood- 
work is  put  together  by  carpenters,  and  if  the  roofs  are 
of  metal,  they  will  be  laid  on  by  tinners  and  roofers. 
The  piping  of  the  house  for  gas,  heat,  and  water  will  be 
done  by  the  plumbers;  while  if  we  have  electricity  in  any 
form  we  shall  need  electricians  to  wire  the  structure  in 
such  a  way  that  it  may  not  take  fire.  And  then  the  paint- 
ing is  to  be  done  by  another  class  of  laborers,  the  lathing 
by  another,  the  plastering  by  a  third,  and  so  on,  each  class 
having  a  place  of  its  own.  In  the  larger  buildings  the 
work  is  still  further  subdivided,  until  in  the  great  office 
structure  the  laborers  form  a  small  army  of  many  com- 
panies, each  of  which  is  skilled  in  one  form  of  construction, 
and  will  do  nothing  else. 

Indeed,  the  work  of  house  building  becomes  more  compli- 
cated from  year  to  year.  New  inventions  bring  forth  new 
materials  and  new  tools.  Stone  is  now  planed  and  carved 
by  machinery;  wood  moldings  which  were  once  laboriously 
cut  out  by  hand  are  now  made  at  the  mills,  ready  to  be  fitted 
into  the  houses ;  and  wire  cloth  sometimes  takes  the  place 
of  lath.  We  shall  learn  more  about  such  features  of  build- 
ing construction  as  we  go  on  with  our  travels. 


238  THE   WORLD'S   TALLEST    BUILDINGS 


Erecting  the  31st  story  of  the  Whitehall  Building. 

28.     THE   WORLD'S   TALLEST    BUILDINGS 

SOME  years  ago  a  little  black  boy  whose  home  was  a 
thatched  hut  in  the  wilds  of  Africa  was  taken  by  a 
missionary  to  the  city  of  New  York.  The  voyage  was 
made  upon  a  steamer  and  the  little  fellow  was  interested 
in  the  mighty  engines  fed  by  coal  which  carried  him  over 
the  oceans,  and  in  the  other  strange  things  he  saw  upon 
shipboard.  He  was  even  more  surprised  at  the  wonders 
on  land.  He  stayed  for  some  months  in  America,  and 
was  then  carried  back  to  his  people,  who  came  together 
from  far  and  near  to  hear  what  he  had  seen.  The  little 
fellow  described  the  doings  of  steam  and  electricity.  He 
told  of  the  magic  of  the  telephone,  of  the  wagons  without 


THE   WORLD'S  TALLEST   BUILDINGS 


239 


horses  which  flew  over  tracks  of  steel,  of  the  automobiles 
which  ate  oil  and  had  a  bad  smelHng  breath,  and  of  the 
electric  light  through  which,  by  touching  a  button,  man 
could  turn  night  into  day. 

As  he  described  these  and  other  miracles,  his  black 
friends  opened  their  eyes  and  mouths  in  amazement,  half 
doubting  whether  what  he  said  could 
be  true.  At  last  he  began  to  tell  of 
our  houses  and  especially  of  the  great 
structures  of  steel  where  a  whole  tribe 
of  families  dwelt  in  apartments  one 
over  the  other,  riding  up  and  down 
to  their  homes  in  elevators  which  he 
called  little  cages  of  iron.  He  said 
that  these  buildings  were  so  tall  that 
the  strongest  and  most  skillful  bow- 
man of  Africa,  standing  upon  the 
ground,  could  not  shoot  an  arrow  as 
high  as  their  roofs.  Upon  that  the 
whole  crowd  gave  a  shout  and  would 
hear  nothing  more.  They  talked  the 
matter  over  together  and  concluded  it 
could  not  be  true  and  that  the  boy's  stories  must  be  lies 
from  beginning  to  end. 

We  know,  however,  that  the  little  fellow  was  well  within 
bounds  in  such  a  description;  and  that  we  have  many  build- 
ings so  high  that  the  strongest  archer  could  not  shoot  over 
them.  The  home  of  the  Metropolitan  Life  Insurance 
Company  in  New  York  is  more  than  one  hundred  feet 
higher  than  the  Washington  Monument;  other  buildings 
there  have  forty  or  fifty  stories,  and  some  of  those  planned 


Park  Row  Building. 


240 


THE   WORLD'S  TALLEST   BUILDINGS 


for  the  future,  will  be  taller  still.  The  Woolworth  Build- 
ing is  750  feet  high.  The  Whitehall  Building  is  higher 
than  the  Great  Pyramid  and  it  covers  more  than  a  half 

acre.  It  has  office  ac- 
commodations for  four 
thousand  people,  who 
are  lifted  to  its  thirty- 
one  floors  by  twenty- 
nine  elevators,  eight  of 
which  are  expresses 
that  do  not  stop  to 
let  passengers  off  or  on 
until  the  twentieth  story 
is  reached.  The  build- 
ing is  heated  by  the  aid 
of  twenty  miles  of  steam 
pipes,  and  its  machin- 
ery is  more  varied  than 
that  of  many  great  fac- 
tories. 

The  Park  Row  Build- 
ing, opposite  the  New 
York  Post  Office,  if  we 
measure  it  from  founda- 
tion to  roof,  although  it 
is  not  so  high  by  several 
hundred  feet  as  some 
steel    structures    which 


A  scaffold  suspended  in  mic 


have  been  erected  since  its  completion,  is  almost  as  tall  as 
the  Washington  Monument.  It  weighs  forty  million  pounds, 
and  is  supported  by  four  thousand  piles,  driven  forty  feet 


THE  WORLD'S  TALLEST   BUILDINGS 


241 


down  through  the  sand  to  bed  rock.     It   has   thirty-one 
stories,  and   in   these    there    are   nine    hundred  and  fifty- 
offices.     It    has     seventeen     hundred 
doors,    two    thousand     windows,    and 
seventy-five  hundred  electric  lights. 

But  let  us  go  to  New  York  and 
take  a  look  at  some  of  these  huge 
office  structures.  There  are  many 
which  have  long  been  completed  and 
others  are  rapidly  rising  to  accommo- 
date the  great  population  which  in- 
creases each  year.  Such  buildings  are 
required  because 
those  engaged  in 
the  many  busi- 
nesses of  the 
metropolis  can 
transact  their 
affairs  more 

rapidly  if  they  can  be  close  together 
Therefore,  as  the  space  in  the  busi- 
ness centers  is  limited  and  the  build- 
ings cannot  be  spread  out,  they  have 
arranged  to  have  them  go  up.  Some 
of  the  land  in  lower  New  York  is  now 
worth  a  million  and  more  dollars  an 
acre,  and  only  buildings  of  immense 
height  will  make  it  possible  to  earn 
a  rent  which  is  in  proportion  to  its 
great  cost.  The  more  stories  a  building  has  the  more 
offices  and  tenants    it   can    accommodate,   and   the    more 

CARI'.  HDISIS — 16 


Singer  Building. 


I    It  u'h'hi 
I'U  1  II  »»»  ' 

J    „    I    ittlMi  I 


Times  Building. 


242  THE   WORLD'S  TALLEST   BUILDINGS 

rent  it  will  bring  in.  By  the  invention  of  steel  construc- 
tion it  has  been  found  that  story  can  be  added  to  story, 
with  safety  ;  and,  by  flying  elevators,  the  people  can  ride 
up  and  down,  so  that  the  man  who  lives  higher  up  than 
the  top  of  the  tallest  fir  tree  of  the  Oregon  woods  is  carried 
to  his  office  more  quickly  than  the  pioneer  could  climb  the 
rude  ladders  which  led  to  the  loft  of  his  cabin.  , 

The  modern  office  building  is  often  called  "  the  sky- 
scraper "  because,  as  one  stands  on  the  ground  beside  it,  its 
roof  seems  almost  to  scrape  the  sky.  It  has  been  described 
as  a  steel  bridge  upon  end,  with  passenger  cars  running  up 
and  down  within  it.  It  is  made  of  steel,  hke  that  used  in 
bridge  building,  the  beams,  joists,  and  rafters  being  rolled 
into  shape  at  the  mills  and  bolted  together  with  hot  rivets. 
Every  piece  in  the  great  structure  must  be  exactly  right  be- 
fore the  work  of  erection  begins,  and  the  whole  is  put  into 
shape  like  a  gigantic  puzzle,  where  each  block  has  its  place. 

After  the  framework  has  been  joined,  the  huge  skeleton 
must  have  its  steel  bones  covered  with  a  coat  of  brick,  tile, 
or  other  material.  Then  the  plaster  is  spread  on  the  me- 
tallic lathing,  and  the  floors  laid. 

In  the  famous  buildings  of  the  past  it  was  the  walls  which 
supported  the  floors  and  upheld  the  roof.  In  these  steel 
structures,  the  walls  serve  merely  as  curtains  to  keep  out 
the  weather  and  are  themselves  supported  by  girders  which 
project  at  the  level  of  the  floor.  In  the  old  buildings  the 
walls  were  laid  first.  In  the  new  ones  the  steel  frame  is 
erected  and  the  walls  are  put  on  afterwards,  the  upper 
stories  being  sometimes  walled  in  before  the  lower  ones. 
During  the  construction  the  plumbing  and  wiring  go  on^ 
and  great  furnaces,  engines,  and  dynamos  are  installed  in 


THE   WORLD'S  TALLEST   BUILDINGS  243 

the  basement.  I  give  on  pages  244  and  245  pictures  of  the 
MetropoHtan  Building  while  in  construction,  and  on  page 
246  one  of  Madison  Square,  showing  the  tower  completed. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  features  of  the  skyscraper  is 
its  foundation.  The  larger  buildings  are  composed  of  steel, 
stone,  and  brick,  and  one  may  weigh  thousands  of  tons. 
Indeed,  a  single  building,  with  its  contents,  often  weighs 
so  much  that,  if  it  were  taken  apart  and  placed  upon 
wagons,  one  hundred  thousand  horses  all  pulling  at  once 
could  not  haul  the  load.  For  such  a  structure,  where  the 
ground  is  not  firm,  an  excavation  must  be  made  to  bed 
rock,  and  concrete  columns  erected  ;  or  a  great  raft  of  steel 
rails  laid  crosswise  and  filled  in  with  cement  may  form  the 
base,  in  order  that  if  it  should  sink  the  settlement  will  be 
even  throughout.  Under  many  of  the  New  York  buildings 
are  hundreds  of  trees  in  the  shape  of  piles  which  have  been 
driven  down  into  the  sand  for  forty  or  more  feet.  These 
piles  are  in  rows  under  those  parts  of  the  building 
which  need  most  support.  After  they  were  driven  far  down 
into  the  earth,  the  sand  was  cleared  away  to  a  depth  of  a 
foot  or  so  from  the  surface  and  concrete  poured  in,  until  it 
formed  a  great  block  of  solid  rock  over  the  whol,e  build- 
ing site  securely  upheld  by  the  trees.  On  this  concrete 
base,  huge  blocks  of  stone  were  laid,  and  upon  them  were 
erected  the  brick  piers  capped  with  granite  to  which  the 
steel  framework  of  the  structure  was  fastened. 

The  variety  of  things  required  in  such  building  is 
so  great  we  cannot  mention  all.  A  single  large  office 
structure  reminds  us  of  a  little  city  under  one  roof.  It 
may  have  its  own  gas  and  electric  plants,  and  its  own 
waterworks    system    fed    perhaps    by    an    artesian    well 


244 


THE   WORLD'S   TALLEST   BUILDINGS 


sunken  hundreds  of 
feet  below  its  founda- 
tion. It  sometimes  has 
a  restaurant  on  its  top 
floor,  and  such  con 
veniences  in  the  way  of 
stores,  Ubraries,  news 
stands,  and  telephone 
and  telegraph  connec- 
tions   in    the    various 


III  III  n» 

m  M>  "• 
-  mnn" 
in  «L»w 
TflWtf! 
Ill  in  ni 
i:s  III  III 
III  111  III 

III  HI  Ml 
HI  III  [|] 

>'•'  itj  III 


Th  th  iH  m  n  M 


(t\  iU  ih 

•  M  III  lit  m  H  I 

i  ■  HI  m  iR  I  I 

■  «    iii  III  ill  ■  i 


November,    1907. 
Metropolitan  Building. 


January,   1908. 

Stories,  that  one  could 
supply  all  his  needs 
from  one  year's  end  to 
another  without  going 
out.  It  often  contains 
a  bank  and  safety  de- 
posit  vaults. 

These  buildings  re- 
quire a  large  force  to 
take    care    of    them. 


THE   WORLD'S  TALLEST   BUILDINGS 


245 


Each   has  its   superintendent  with   a  host  of  employees, 

many  of  whom  are  in  uniform.     It  has  its  engineers  and 

electricians,  its  boys  who 

run   the  elevators,    and 

also  messengers  of  one 

kind  or  other.     It  must 

have  women   to    sweep 

and  scrub,  and  men  to 

clean    the    windows. 

The    latter    wear    belts 

which    are  fastened  by 

straps   to  hooks  on  the 

outside  of  the  windows, 

so   that  if  they   should 

lose  their  footing  on  the 

sill,  they  might  not  fall 

from  the  great  height  to 

the  ground. 

The  business  of  a 
large  office  building  sur- 
passes description.  Its 
visitors  are  numbered  by 
thousands,  and  so  many 
go  in  and  out  in  a  day 
that  it  has  been  estimated 
that  if  they  could  be 
all  collected  and  packed 
side  by  side  like  sardines 
in  a  box,  the  structure 
would  be  only  just  big 
enough  to  hold  them. 


til  III ,..       "  >  1 1  iTi"r,'Y 

!"  »ii  III  "Wf  ' I. 

!"'»«     tl    ?   **   €, 


July,    190b. 
Metropolitan  Building. 


246 


THE   WORLD'S  TALLEST   BUILDINGS 


Of  much  the  same  nature  are  the  apartment  houses 
now  to  be  found  in  all  our  large  cities.  In  some  of  these 
scores  of  families  dwell  under  one  roof,  being  supplied  by 
the  heat,  light,  and  water  which  come  from  the  basement. 
Each  family  has  an  apartment  or  flat,  consisting  of  several 
rooms  connected  together  and  all  on  the  same  floor.  It  will 
have  its  own  kitchen,  dining  room,  and  parlor,  with  enough 


Madison  Square. 

bedrooms  to  accommodate  its  members.  The  family  use 
the  elevator  to  reach  their  home,  and  the  provisions  are 
brought  up  on  a  dumb  waiter  or  freight  elevator.  Heat 
and  light  are  obtained  by  turning  a  valve  or  switch;  and 
the  gas  stove  of  the  kitchen  has  no  ashes  to  be  taken 
out.  In  many  of  the  apartment  houses  are  restaurants 
in  which  one  may  eat  his  meals  or  not  as  he  chooses, 
and  in  some  of  them  are  playgrounds  for  the  children, 
high  up  on  the  roof. 

In  addition  to  these  large  apartment  houses  there  are 


IN  A  NEW  YORK   HOTEL  247 

many  small  ones.  Such  are  to  be  found  in  all  the  towns 
of  the  country,  and  I  doubt  not  some  of  the  boys  and  girls 
of  our  party  may  be  able  to  tell  us  just  how  they  are  con- 
structed and  all  about  the  life  of  these  homes. 


29.    IN   A    NEW   YORK   HOTEL 

THE  hotel  is  the  home  of  the  traveler.  It  is  there  he 
eats  and  sleeps,  there  he  receives  his  friends,  and 
there  he  rests  when  not  going  about  on  business  or  pleas- 
ure. We  have  many  families  who  live  in  hotels  all  the 
year  round,  and  we  have  so  many  hotels  that  it  takes 
several  million  people  to  run  them.  They  are  numbered 
by  thousands,  and  billions  of  dollars  are  invested  in  them. 
The  American  hotel  is  so  arranged  that  it  gives  one  most 
of  the  comforts  he  has  at  home.  This  is  not  so  of  the 
native  hotels  or  inns  of  some  other  lands.  In  China,  India, 
and  northern  Africa  they  are  little  more  than  sleeping 
places  for  men  and  beasts.  When  the  Arab  travels  upon 
his  camel,  he  carries  much  of  his  food  with  him  and  does 
his  own  cooking  wherever  he  stops.  Great  caravansaries 
or  stableUke  inns  are  to  be  found  in  such  cities  as  Damas- 
cus, Fez,  Tunis,  and  Cairo.  There  the  traveler  sleeps  on 
the  straw,  with  his  camel  or  donkey  near  by.  In  China 
the  country  inns  are  often  one-story  structures  with  win- 
dows of  paper,  built  about  courts  in  which  the  donkeys 
and  horses  are  stabled  at  night.  One  is  lulled  to  sleep  by 
the  crunching  of  the  cattle  as  they  chew  their  cuds,  and  he 
is  often  awakened  by  the  donkeys  which  bray  in  concert 
from  time  to  time  during  the  night. 


248)  "We  now  have  some  of  the  best  hotels  of  the  world." 


IN  A   NEW   YORK   HOTEL  249 

The  Japanese  have  neat  hotels  in  both  city  and  country; 
but  at  the  native  inns  one  must  expect  to  sleep  on  the  floor, 
and  eat  at  low  tables  before  which  he  kneels  or  sits  cross- 
legged  on  cushions.  He  uses  chopsticks;  and  the  tea, 
rice,  and  other  food  will  be  brought  to  him  on  trays  by 
little  Japanese  girls,  who  bump  their  heads  on  the  floor  in 
salutation  as  they  come  in  to  serve  him. 

In  a  Turkish  hotel  the  guests  are  often  crowded  into 
one  or  two  rooms,  many  sleeping  together.  At  dinner  a 
roast  sheep  may  be  brought  in  whole;  and  the  party  may 
sit  around  this  and  each  carve  for  himself.  The  Turks  eat 
without  forks  and  in  taking  up  bits  of  meat  from  a  stew 
they  bend  a  piece  of  bread  between  thumb  and  finger  and 
use  it  as  pincers.  Other  nations  of  Asia  and  Africa  have 
customs  equally  curious;  and  it  is  only  the  white  race  that 
has  the  modern  hotel,  with  its  separate  room  for  each  guest 
and  its  many  conveniences. 

The  first  hotels  of  our  country  were  known  as  taverns  or 
inns,  and  each  had  a  swinging  sign  which  bore  some  such 
name  as  "The  Red  Lion,"  "The  Black  Bear,"  "The  Eagle," 
or  perhaps  "The  Kings"  or  "The  Queens."  After  the 
Revolution,  some  of  the  latter  signs  were  changed  to  "The 
Washington,"  "The  Franklin,"  or  "The  Lafayette"  in 
honor  of  the  great  men  of  that  day.  When  General 
Washington  visited  Boston  he  stayed  at  the  "  Bunch  of 
Grapes"  tavern;  and  at  Trenton  he  lived  at  "  The  True 
American  Inn." 

As  the  United  States  grew  in  wealth  and  population, 
hotels  began  to  spring  up  in  the  cities;  and  after  railroads 
came  increa.sing  the  travel  they  grew  larger  and  finer, 
until  we  now  have  some  of  the  best  hotels  of  the  world. 


250 


IN   A  NEW   YORK   HOTEL 


There  are  many  such  in  New  York,  and  it  will  pay  us  to 
visit  them. 

The  one  we  select  is  known  all  over  the  country,  and,  in- 
deed, we  might  say  throughout  the  world.  It  has  twenty- 
five  stories  above  the  ground  and  five  stories  below  it,  and 
the  area  of  its  floor  space  is  such  that  if  it  were  all  on  one 
level  it  would  cover  a  good  sized  field.  Its  rooms  are  more 
than  fifteen  hundred  in  number,  and  when  it  is  full,  which 
is  often  the  case,  it  contains,  counting  both  servants  and 
guests,  more  than  three  thousand  people,  its  kitchens  and 


The  roof  garden  where  one  can  sit  among  the  flowers  and  trees. 


dining  rooms  being  large  enough  to  feed  them  all.  This 
hotel  has  sufficient  machinery  in  its  basement  to  run  a  big 
factory.     Its  parlors  are  as  beautifully  furnished  as  the  pal- 


IN  A  NEW  YORK   HOTEL 


251 


ace  of  a  king  ;  and  on  its  roof,  which  is  far  above  the  tall- 
est church  steeple,  is  a  great  garden   where  one  can   sit 


"  He  leads  us  into  the  office." 


among  the  flowers  and  trees  and  watch  the  fountain  play- 
ing while  he  listens  to  the  music  of  the  band.  The  hotel 
has  more  than  iifteen  hundred  servants,  and  of  these  about 
one  hundred  are  boys  who  run  errands,  show  the  guests  to 
their  rooms,  and  carry  messages  of  various  kinds.  Each 
boy  receives  twenty-five  dollars  a  month  for  his  work,  and 
in  addition  has  many  tips  or  presents  from  the  guests. 
But  let  us  suppose  we  have  landed  at  the  station  and 
have  ridden  in  a  motor  cab  to  the  front  entrance  of  this 
great  establishment.  Mere  we  are  met  by  the  porter. 
He  wears  a  gorgeous  livery  with  brass  buttons  and  has 


252 


IN   A   NEW   YORK    HOTEL 


a  tall  hat  on  his  head.  He  takes  care  of  our  baggage  and 
leads  us  into  the  office.  This  is  a  great  room  like  a  bank 
with  a  counter  at  the  rear,  behind  which  stand  the  clerks. 
The  messenger  boys  conduct  us  to  the  counter,  and  a 
clerk  gives  us  the  visitor's  book  in  which  we  write  our 
names  and  the  towns  from  which  we  come.  He  then 
assigns  each  a  room,  saying  that  he  will  put  us  all  on  the 
twelfth  floor.     Before  going  up  we  walk  around  to  the  post 

office  of  the  hotel 
and  ask  for  our  mail, 
stopping  at  the  tele- 
graph desk  to  send 
word  home  to  our 
fathers  and  mothers 
that  we  have  safely 
arrived  in  New  York, 
We  next  go  up  in 
one  of  the  elevators 
and  ask  to  be  let  off 
at  the  twelfth  floor. 
Now  we  have  entered  our  rooms.  Each  has  a  comfortable 
bed,  a  table  or  so,  and  some  easy  chairs.  It  has  a  bureau 
and  wardrobe,  and  also  a  closet,  inside  which  is  a  box  which 
opens  out  into  the  hall.  The  boy  tells  us  we  can  put  our 
shoes  there  at  night,  and  that  they  will  be  blackened  by 
'che  time  we  awake  in  the  morning.  Connected  with  each 
room  is  a  bath,  with  a  large  porcelain  tub,  and  tiled  walls 
and  floor.  The  room  has  also  a  telephone,  so  that  we  can 
talk  to  people  in  New  York  and,  by  being  switched  on  to 
ihe  long  distance  lines,  even  chat  with  our  friends  at  home. 
The  telephone  also  connects  us  with  the  office  of  the  hotel, 


Now  we  have  entered  our  rooms. 


IN   A  NEW   YORK   HOTEL  253 

and  if  we  want  pens  and  paper,  or  ice  water,  or  almost 
anything  else,  we  can  call  up  the  office  and  ask  that  it  be 
sent  to  our  rooms.  Every  floor  has  its  own  employees, 
and  it  will  not  be  long  before  our  orders  are  filled. 

We  shall  now  go  out  and  take  a  stroll  through  the  hotel. 
The  elevator  carries  us  up  to  "the  roof,  and  we  spend  a 
while  there  in  the  garden.  After  that  we  go  down  from  one 
floor  to  another,  until  at  last  we  reach  the  one  just  over  the 
office.  This  contains  a  great  ballroom,  an  art  gallery,  and 
many  beautiful  parlors.  It  has  the  state  banquet  hall,  a 
music  room,  and  other  gorgeous  apartments. 

Descending  to  the  main  floor  we  stop  to  look  into  the 
dining  room  and  restaurants,  where  hundreds  of  men 
women  and  children  are  eating  their  meals.  They  sit  about 
little  tables  and  are  waited  upon  by  men  in  black  clothes. 
We  are  shown  the  bill  of  fare.  It  contains  almost  every 
eatable  under  the  sun,  and  it  seems  to  us  the  whole  world 
has  been  working  to  supply  food  for  these  tables.  There 
is  fruit  from  everywhere ;  melons  from  Canada,  oranges 
from  California,  and  bananas  from  the  West  Indies.  There 
are  apples  from  Missouri,  peaches  from  Georgia,  and 
grapes  from  New  York.  There  are  meats  and  game  of  all 
descriptions,  and  vegetables  of  the  tropic  and  temperate 
zones.  As  we  look  the  manager  tells  us  that  the  hotel 
consumes  sixty  thousand  dollars'  worth  of  fish  every  year, 
and  that  its  poultry  alone  costs  twice  as  much.  It  uses 
about  one  hundred  thousand  dollars'  worth  of  fruits  and 
vegetables,  twenty  thousand  dollars'  worth  of  coffee,  and 
eighteen  thousand  dollars'  worth  of  flour.  It  annually 
spends  eighty  thousand  dollars  for  butter  and  eggs,  and  a 
f|iKirter  of  a  million  dollars  for  meats. 


254 


IN   A  NEW   YORK   HOTEL 


He  asks  us  if  we  would  not  like  to  go  down  into  the 
lower  stories  and  see  the  supplies,  and  also  visit  the  kitchens 
and  other  departments.  We  gladly  accept  his  invitation 
and,  entering  the  elevator  and  dropping  five  stories,  find 
ourselves  about  fifty  feet  under  ground.  If  the  hotel  were 
taken  away,  a  four-story  house  could  be  dropped  into  the 
excavation,  and  with  its  ground  floor  where  we  are  now  its 


In.  a  hotel  kitchen. 


roof  would  not  reach  the  sidewalk.  Nevertheless  it  is  as 
light  as  day.  There  are  hundreds  of  electric  lights  blazing 
away.  The  floor  is  of  white  tiles,  and  the  walls  and  ceilings 
are  white.  We  are  in  the  machinery  department.  Over 
there  at  one  side  are  the  furnaces  which  keep  the  rooms 
warm.  There  are  a  number  of  them,  each  connected  with 
an  enormous  boiler.  They  consume  a  hundred  tons  of  coal 
in  a  day,  and  more  than  thirty-five  thousand  tons  every 
year.     They  supply,  not  only  the  heat,  but  also  the  power 


IN   A   NEW   YORK   HOTEL  255 

for  the  machinery  and  that  which  generates  the  electricity. 
They  not  only  light  and  heat  the  hotel,  but  they  cool  it  as 
well,  for  they  run  an  ice-making  factory  where  water  is 
frozen  in  great  blocks  half  as  large  as  a  library  table.  In 
this  department  there  are  many  mechanics.  There  is  a 
locksmith  who  makes  keys  for  the  rooms  and  keeps  the 
clocks  of  the  hotel  in  order.  There  are  carpenters  and 
cabinet  makers,  and  electricians  and  engineers. 

We  have  now  again  entered  the  elevator,  and  ascended  two 
stories  to  look  at  the  kitchens.  They  cover  almost  an  acre, 
and  this  space  is  taken  up  by  stoves,  broilers,  great  coffee 
urns,  and  kettles  as  big  around  as  a  hogshead,  steaming 
with  soup.  There  is  one  kitchen  range  which  is  as  long 
as  a  city  lot  and  half  as  wide  as  a  schoolroom.  Upon  it 
food  of  all  kinds  is  cooking  away. 

Here  at  the  right  is  a  bakery.  That  man  in  the  white 
cap  is  the  baker,  and  he  can  bake  four  thousand  loaves  of 
bread  in  a  day.  As  we  come  up,  he  opens  the  oven. 
Its  floor  is  as  big  as  that  of  a  parlor,  and  is  covered  with 
biscuits  and  rolls  being  cooked  to  a  turn. 

A  little  farther  on  are  the  butchers,  some  of  whom  cut 
nothing  but  steaks  and  chops  all  day  long,  and  others 
dress  only  poultry  and  game.  In  a  hotel  like  this  each 
man  has  his  own  kind  of  work.  The  cooks  who  roast 
meat  pay  no  attention  to  vegetables,  and  those  who  make 
the  ice  cream  do  not  bother  with  the  pastry.  The  hotel 
often  consumes  three  hundred  gallons  of  ice  cream  in  one 
day,  and  it  keeps  several  men  busy  freezing  and  molding 
it  into  the.  odd  shapes  in  which  it  is  served.  The  cooks 
are  dressed  in  white  with  white  caps.  They  are  well  paid 
and  their  chief  has  a  big  salary. 


256  IN   A   NEW   YORK   HOTEL 

Leaving  the  kitchens  we  cross  to  the  other  side  of  the 
basement  where  the  dishes  are  being  washed.  This  is  done 
by  machinery.  The  plates,  knives,  forks,  and  spoons  are 
put  in  wire  baskets  and  dropped  into  a  vat  of  boiling  soap- 
suds, from  which  they  come  out  clean  and  ready  to  dry. 
The  drying  is  done  by  the  heat  which  the  plates  get  while 
in  the  water.  This  is  so  great  that  the  moisture  evaporates 
as  soon  as  they  are  exposed  to  the  air. 

We  are  now  tired  with  our  trip  through  the  basement, 
and  we  go  back  to  the  dining  room.  The  waiter  hands  us 
the  bill  of  fare  and  we  begin  to  select  the  dishes  we  want,  but 
are  amazed  at  the  prices.  This  is  an  expensive  hotel,  and 
one  order  of  almost  any  sort  of  meat  costs  a  dollar.  We 
are  therefore  careful  as  to  what  we  select.  The  portions 
are  large,  however,  and  as  each  is  enough  for  several  of 
our  party  we  divide  the  orders  among  us  and  thus  make 
out  a  good  meal.  When  we  have  finished,  the  waiter 
hands  us  a.  bill  on  which  is  marked  the  price  of  each  thing 
we  have  eaten,  and  we  pay  this  before  going  out. 

Moving  about  through  the  hotel  we  are  more  and  more 
surprised  at  its  wonders.  It  has  a  safe  for  valuables,  a 
bank  at  which  one  can  have  his  checks  cashed,  barber 
shops  for  both  men  and  women,  and  a  photograph  gallery. 
It  has  a  news  stand  and  a  drug  store,  and  places  where 
they  sell  candy  and  flowers. 

In  addition  to  the  great  hotels  like  this,  there  are  thou- 
sands of  smaller  ones,  including  commercial  hotels  and 
those  devoted  to  families.  Every  village  has  its  home 
for  the  traveler,  and  there  are  hotels  at  the  seashore,  in  the 
mountains,  and  at  our  winter  resorts.  Some  of  these  are  in 
use  for  only  a  few  months  of  the  year. 


FIRE  257 

30.    FIRE 

TO-DAY  we  are  again  on  the  wing.  We  have  taken  an 
airship  and  are  sailing  about  over  the  earth,  stopping 
now  and  then  at  the  homes  of  some  of  our  httle  brothers 
and  sisters  on  other  parts  of  the  globe.  We  want  to  learn 
how  the  world's  houses  are  warmed  and  the  many  ways 
man  has  for  cooking  his  food.  To  do  this  we  shall  first 
examine  the  heating  arrangements  of  some  far-away  lands 
whose  homes  have  less  comforts  and  conveniences  than 
ours.  After  that  we  shall  look  at  the  fires  of  colonial  days, 
used  by  our  ancestors  when  they  were  chopping  their  rude 
homes  out  of  the  woods,  and  then  shall  study  our  methods 
of  heating  to-day. 

But  first  let  us  ask  what  fire  is,  and  how  man  learned  to 
make  it.  These  questions  are  hard  ones  to  answer.  The 
ancients  believed  fire  to  be  one  of  the  four  elements  of 
which,  as  they  thought,  all  things  were  composed.  These 
were  earth,  air,  fire,  and  water.  We  now  know  that  earth, 
-^ir,  and  water  are  each  made  up  of  other  elements  or 
things,  and  that  fire  is  the  visible  heat  or  light  which  comes 
from  certain  bodies  in  the  process  of  combustion  or 
burning. 

The  ancient  Greeks  believed  that  fire  came  down  from 
Heaven.  Certain  tribes  of  the  Pacific  Islands  have  a 
tradition  that  it  was  brought  up  from  the  lower  regions 
where  the  great  god,  Maui,  learned  the  secret  of  making  it 
by  rubbing  two  sticks  together.  Among  the  natives  of 
the  Tonga  Islands  the  god  of  the  earthquake  is  also  the 
god  of  fire ;  and  some  of  our  Indians  had  a  story  that  the 
first  fire  came  to  man  from  the  buffaloes,  which  in  gallop- 

CARP,  HOUSES 17 


A  Filipino  feast. 


(253) 


Filipinos  cool^ing  rice. 


FIRE  259 

ing  over  the  prairies  set  them  ablaze  by  the  sparks  from 
their  hoofs  striking  the  rocks.  The  ancient  Grecian  tradi- 
tion is  that  Prometheus,  one  of  the  gods,  stole  fire  from 
Heaven,  brought  it  to  earth  in  a  hollow  reed,  and  gave  it 
to  man.  This  made  Jupiter,  the  chief  of  the  gods,  very- 
angry  and  he  condemned  Prometheus  to  be  chained  to  a 
rock  on  Mount  Caucasus,  where  an  eagle  ate  at  his  liver, 
which  grew  as  fast  as  it  was  consumed  and  thus  made  his 
torment  perpetual.  The  Greeks  greatly  honored  Prome- 
theus. They  had  a  temple  in  Athens  where  he  was  wor- 
shiped, and  in  celebration  of  his  present  of  fire  an  annual 
festival  was  held,  one  of  the  features  of  which  was  a  torch 
race  from  his  altar  to  the  city. 

The  Scandinavian  god,  Thor,  held  a  mallet  in  one  hand 
and  a  flint  in  the  other  and  with  them  made  fire ;  while 
the  ancient  Peruvians  believed  that  thunder  and  lightning 
came  from  one  of  their  gods  hurling  stones  with  a  sling. 
The  Greeks  called  lightning  flashes  the  thunderbolts  of 
Jove,  but  the  Peruvians  thought  they  were  the  children 
of  their  god. 

But  however  fire  first  came  to  be  known  —  whether  it 
was  from  a  volcano  which  overflowed  and  in  blazing 
streams  of  molten  lava  ignited  the  forest,  or  whether 
from  the  lightning  striking  the  dry  grass  or  trees — man 
.soon  learned  its  great  value  and  was  able  to  produce  it 
himself.  There  are  many  savage  tribes  in  Africa  who 
start  their  fires  by  rapidly  whirling  one  stick  around  in 
a  hole  inside  another.  In  this  the  friction  makes  the  wood 
hotter  and  hotter  and  by  and  by  it  bursts  into  a  blaze. 
The  Indians  of  this  continent  were  making  fire  in  much  the 
same   way   when   our   forefathers   came.     They  also   used 


26o  FIRE 

pieces  of  flint,  which  they  struck  upon  other  flint  and  thus 
got  sparks  which  they  caught  on  dry  punk.     This  is  still 

the  custom  among  some  of 
the  tribes  of  Canada,  the 
flints  being  an  article  of 
merchandise  sold  by  the 
fur  traders  of  the  Hudson 
Bay  Company.  Our 
pioneer  forefathers  em- 
ployed flints  to  kindle  their 
Making  fire  in  Africa.  i  ,     i-    ,  ^^i  j 

fires  and  to  light  the  powder 

of  their  guns,  and  it  is  only  of  late  years  that  man  has 
had  matches  or  percussion  caps.  As  to  the  burning  glass, 
that  was  known  to  the  Greeks  —  as  we  learn  from  the 
story  of  how  Archimedes  set  fire  to  the  ships  of  the  enemy 
at  Syracuse  by  using  a  mirror.  Moreover,  the  Chinese 
are  said  to  have  used  such  glasses  ages  ago. 

Some  nations  have  made  fire  an  object  of  worship.  The 
Persians  did  this,  and  also  the  Parsees,  who  are  descended 
from  them.  The  Parsees,  who  now  live  in  India,  have 
temples  at  Bombay  in  which  are  fires  that  are  said  to  have 
been  burning  for  hundreds  of  years.  The  Egyptians  kept 
fires  in  their  temples,  as  d.id  the  Romans  in  their  Temple 
of  Vesta,  a  goddess  who  was  represented  by  the  holy  flame. 

To-day  fire  is  even  more  important  to  man  than  when 
he  made  it  an  object  of  worship.  It  not  only  lights  and 
heats  our  houses,  but,  through  the  inventions  connected 
with  steam  and  electricity,  moves  the  cars  over  the  rail- 
roads and  the  steamships  over  the  oceans.  It  forces  the 
automobile  to  its  speed  of  a  mile  or  more  a  minute,  and 
in  flying  machines  enables  us  to  go  as  swiftly  as  a  bird 


«*^-'a);^    >:':ii' 


I 


lit^     •■nat»f" 


Konia:i    uains   ^re-.ioraUun;. 


yZbl) 


262  FIRE 

through  the  air.  It  gives  us  all  kinds  of  manufactures. 
It  is  the  father  of  iron  and  steel,  and,  in  some  way  or 
other,  is  the  most  necessary  servant  of  civilized  man  as  to 
all  that  he  eats,  drinks,  and  wears,  as  well  as  to  his  various 
comforts  and  doings  all  the  day  through. 

Chemists  tell  us  that  fire  is  the  rapid  union  of  oxygen 
with  other  substances.  When  the  union  is  gradual,  we 
usually  call  it  oxidation.  Iron  and  oxygen  unite  and  form 
iron  rust,  while  hydrogen  and  oxygen  unite  and  form  the 
commonest  of  all  substances,  water. 

In  this  book,  however,  we  are  chiefly  concerned  with  fire 
as  it  relates  to  warming  and  lighting  man's  houses,  and 
this  alone  is  the  object  of  our  journey  to-day.  Our  airship 
is  ready  to  start.  We  get  in  and  are  soon  high  up  in  the 
clouds,  flying  at  great  speed  towards  the  north.  We  shall 
visit  the  coldest  lands  first,  warming  our  chilled  blood  at 
the  fires  of  our  Eskimo  cousins.  The  winds  aid  the  speed 
of  our  vessel.  They  shriek  and  whistle  as  they  blow 
through  its  rigging,  and  the  earth  below  seems  to  be  mov- 
ing fast  towards  the  south.  Now  we  have  crossed  our 
northern  boundary  and  are  passing  over  British  America. 
We  are  almost  on  the  shores  of  the  Arctic  Ocean,  when 
we  drop  down  among  a  score  of  what  at  first  seem  small 
mounds  of  snow,  but  are  really  igloos  or  Eskimo  homes. 
Each  is  a  little  domelike  building  made  of  blocks  of  ice 
so  fitted  together  that  it  has  the  shape  of  half  an  egg- 
shell. Over  the  ice,  snow  has  been  spread,  and  the  only 
entrance  is  by  a  hole  in  the  ground.  We  leave  the  flying 
machine  and  crawl  in,  pulling  our  coats  tight  about  our 
necks  in  order  that  the  snow  from  over  the  doorway  may 
not  drop  down  our  backs. 


FIRE  263 

Now  we  are  inside.  The  house  is  so  low  we  can  hardly 
stand  upright.  Only  a  moment  ago  Jack  Frost  seemed 
everywhere.  He  pinched  our  cheeks,  bit  our  noses,  and 
we  had  to  rub  our  ears  to  keep  them  from  freezing.  In- 
side the  igloo  it  is  so  warm  that  some  of  our  Eskimo 
friends  have  almost  no  clothing.  The  heat  comes  from 
that  lamp  of  fish  oil  which  stands  at  one  side  of  the  room. 
See,  the  flame  is  melting  the  roof ;  its  heat  has  cut  its  way 
between  the  ice  blocks  and  made  little  chimneys,  as  it 
were,  which,  with  the  draft  from  the  doorway,  give  the 
house  a  certain  amount  of  fresh  air.  Oil  is  used  here  for 
fuel,  and  in  this  small  dwelling  a  very  little  is  enough  to 
keep  out  the  cold. 

We  tarry  awhile  with  our  Eskimo  friends  and  then  fly 
on  to  the  westward  and  drop  down  in  Korea.  Here  the 
houses  are  largely  composed  of  mud  and  stones,  thatched 
with  straw.  We  enter  one,  and  are  asked  to  take  a  seat  on 
the  floor.  We  do  so,  crossing  our  legs  in  Korean  style. 
It  was  cold  without,  but  it  is  warm  and  pleasant  within, 
and  we  look  about  for  the  stove.  There  is  none  to  be  seen. 
After  a  time  we  grow  uncomfortably  warm,  and,  placing 
our  hands  on  the  iloor,  find  it  quite  hot.  It  is  covered 
with  oiled  paper  stretched  as  tight  as  a  drumhead,  and  it 
almost  blisters  our  fingers.  Upon  our  asking  from  whence 
the  heat  comes,  the  Koreans  tell  us  that  they  have  a  net- 
work of  flues  under  the  floor,  so  made  that  when  the  fire  is 
built  in  the  kitchen  the  flames  pass  through  them  and  heat 
the  whole  building.  As  we  go  out  into  the  street  we  ob- 
serve the  smoke  pouring  from  a  clay  pipe  which  is  fitted 
into  the  wall  of  the  house  at  about  the  height  of  our  waists 
from    the    fjround.      More  smoke  is  coming   from    similar 


264 


FIRE 


pipes  in  the  other  houses  near  by.  There  is  so  much  that 
it  has  turned  the  air  blue.  The  village  is  cooking  its  sup- 
per, and  at  the  same  time  warming  up  for  the  night. 

Crossing  the  Yellow  Sea  we  travel  among  our  slant-eyed 
little  friends  of  northern  China.  Here  the  houses  are 
heated  in    much    the    same    way    as  in  Korea,   save  that 


"  These  stove  ledges  are  the  resting  places  of  the  family." 


the  flues  pass  under  the  kang,  a  ledge  about  as  high  as 
a  chair  which  fills  one  half  of  each  room.  These  stove 
ledges  are  the  sleeping  and  resting  places  of  the  family. 
They  are  heated  chiefly  by  the  fires  used  for  cooking. 
In  the  larger  houses  there  are  similar  arrangements  which 
may  be  used  for  heating  alone. 

With  many  of  the  Chinese,  however,  the  cost  of  fuel  is 


FIRE  265 

SO  great  that  they  use  only  the  surplus  heat  from  the 
kitchen,  relying  upon  clothing  to  keep  themselves  warm. 
Here  in  the  north  we  see  some  who  are  dressed  in  furs,  or 
in  sheepskins  with  the  wool  turned  inward.  Farther  south 
the  people  wear  wadded  cotton,  putting  on  additional  suits 
as  the  winter  comes  on.  As  the  thermometer  approaches 
zero  they  seem  to  fatten,  and  those  who  are  naturally 
fleshy  then  grow  so  big,  through  their  abundance  of  clothes, 
that  it  is  almost  impossible  for  them  to  pass  through 
the  doors  of  their  homes.  The  little  boys  are  so  padded 
that  they  look  more  like  balls  than  anything  else,  and 
should  they  fall  down  on  the  side  of  a  hill,  the  chances  are 
that  snowball-Uke  they  would  roll  over  and  over,  clear  to  the 
bottom. 

We  find  the  weather  milder  in  Japan  than  it  was  in 
northern  China,  and  the  houses  less  tightly  built.  The 
thin  walls  slide  in  and  out,  and  the  air  blows  through  the 
cracks.  The  buildings  are  made  of  wood  and  paper 
which  quickly  take  fire,  and  hence  kangs  and  flues  are 
not  safe.  Most  of  the  houses  are  poorly  warmed  by 
little  fires  of  charcoal  built  in  brass-bound  boxes  called 
hibachis,  partly  filled  with  ashes  or  earth.  As  winter  comes 
on  the  people  add  more  and  more  clothing,  warming  their 
feet  and  hands  over  these  coals.  There  are  no  stoves  to 
speak  of,  and  only  the  palaces  and  large  public  buildings 
have  heating  plants.  As  we  stand  upon  the  hills  to  take 
a  bird's-eye  view  of  a  city  we  look  in  vain  for  the  chimneys, 
so  common  to  every  American  town.  There  are  but  few 
such  in  Japan,  most  of  the  cooking  being  done  in  square 
boxes  of  charcoal,  at  one  end  of  which  is  a  coj)per-lined  fire 
hole.     It  is  also  done  on  little  clay  stoves.     The  water  for 


266 


FIRE 


Japanese  hibachi. 


bathing  is  heated  by  a  charcoal  fire  built  in  a  funnel- 
shaped  stove  in  the  back  end  of  each  bathtub.  The  stove 
has  a  pipe  which  passes  up  through  the  water,  and  makes 

it  so  hot  that  when 
we  get  into  the  tub 
we  quickly  jump  out. 
Our  skins  are  now 
as  red  as  a  lobster, 
fresh  boiled. 
Every  Japanese 
house  has  its  bath- 
tub, and  the  larger  ones  have  bathrooms.  In  all  of  the 
cities  there  are  public  bathhouses,  where  hundreds  of  men, 
women,  and  children  take  a  hot  plunge  every  day. 

Our  next  stop  is  at  the  Philippine  Islands.  Here  the 
cities  have  some  large  houses  with  stoves  such  as  we  have 
at  home  ;  but  out  in  the  country  and  in  the  villages,  where 
the  people  live  in  houses  of  bamboo  cane  thatched  with 
palm  trees,  the  cooking  is  done  in  Httle  clay  stoves,  which 
often  rest  upon  a  platform  covered  with  earth.  Sometimes 
such  platforms  are  built  under  a  shed  or  lean-to,  adjoining 
the  house.  We  are  now  in  the  tropics,  and  no  heat  is 
needed  on  account  of  the  weather. 

How  would  you  Uke  to  live  in  a  land  where  Mother 
Earth  does  the  cooking  ;  where,  year  in  and  year  out,  the 
boys  do  not  need  to  bring  in  wood  or  kindle  the  fires ;  and 
where  there  are  no  ashes  to  carry  away  ?  This  is  the  con- 
dition among  certain  tribes  of  Maoris  whom  we  shall  visit 
at  their  homes  in  northern  New  Zealand.  We  face  our 
airship  towards  the  southeast,  across  the  Equator,  and  are 
soon  soaring  above  the  great  island  of  New  Guinea.     We 


FIRE  267 

then  move  on  in  the  same  direction  over  the  Pacific  Ocean 
and  finally  come  to  New  Zealand. 

As  we  land  we  see  steam  coming  out  of  the  earth. 
There  are  great  pools  of  boiling  black  mud  here  and  there, 
and  geysers  are  spurting  showers  of  hot  water  and  steam 
high  into  the  air.  We  are  in  the  hot  springs  region,  not 
far  south  of  Auckland,  where  in  many  places  the  steam  is 
always  pouring  forth  from  the  earth.  The  Maoris,  who 
have  built  their  log  houses  near  by,  cook  their  meals  in 
the  steam.  They  use  wooden  boxes  open  on  top  and 
having  only  a  network  of  cords  stretched  over  the  bottom. 
They  place  their  food  on  the  net  and  cover  it  with  a 
cloth.  They  now  rest  the  box  upon  or  in  the  steam 
hole,  and  the  hot  vapor  cooks  the  food  quite  as  well 
as  that  of  our  steam  cookers  at  home.  In  this  way 
the  Maoris  boil  eggs  and  potatoes,  and  stew  and  boil 
meats;  they  even  make  puddings  for  their  holiday  feasts. 
Some  of  them  are  excellent  cooks,  and  we  delight  in  the 
meals  we  eat  with  them  on  the  hillsides,  taking  the  food 
hot  from  the  box.  In  this  same  region  are  many  warm 
springs,  where  one  can  have  a  delightful  bath  at  any 
hour  of  the  day  without  the  trouble  of  heating  the  water. 

Almost  directly  north  of  New  Zealand  are  the  Samoan 
Islands,  where  the  weather  is  so  warm  that  no  heat  is 
needed  except  for  preparing  the  food.  There  and  in 
others  of  the  islands  about  the  natives  have  no  stoves,  and 
they  sometimes  do  their  cooking  by  building  fires  in  holes 
in  the  earth  lined  with  stones.  This  makes  the  stones  so 
hot  that  any  food  placed  upon  them  is  rapidly  cooked. 
.Such  holes  are  also  used  as  steam  ovens.  A  whole  pig 
may  be  roasted,  or  meats  and  vegetables  i:)!aced  there  in 


268  FIRE 

layers  and  covered  with  grass  or  green  leaves.  After 
that  some  earth  is  spread  over  the  top  and  a  little  water 
poured  in ;  or  the  steam  from  the  leaves  and  the  vege- 
tables may  suffice  for  the  cooking.  We  taste  some  of 
the  food  prepared  in  this  way.  It  is  so  delicious  that  we 
decide  to  make  an  oven  ourselves  the  next  time  we  go 
fishing  or  picnicking  at  home. 

Leaving  the  South  Seas  we  journey  on  to  other  parts 
of  Asia  and  Africa,  finding  strange  fire-making  methods 
among  the  wild  peoples.  In  Africa  much  of  the  cooking 
is  done  out  of  doors.  In  India,  as  we  have  seen,  the  chief 
fuel  is  the  manure  of  cattle  mixed  with  earth. 

We  now  go  to  Europe,  where  fuel  is  more  plentiful  and 
the  houses  are  warmed  much  like  our  own.  We  begin  our 
travels  in  the  great  empire  of  Russia.  This  is  a  cold 
country,  in  parts  of  which  it  is  winter  for  five  or  six 
months  of  the  year.  The  houses  are  large,  and  those  of 
the  rich  are  heated  with  great  stoves  of  porcelain  built 
at  one  side  or  in  a  corner  of  each  room.  Every  stove  has 
many  chambers  inside  it,  and  it  is  so  easily  heated  that  a 
comparatively  small  amount  of  fuel  will  keep  warm  a  large 
room.  On  account  of  the  severity  of  their  winters,  the 
Russians  build  thick  walls  for  their  houses,  and  fit  them 
with  double  windows  and  doors. 

The  poorer  people  live  in  log  huts  thatched  with  straw. 
Their  chief  fuel  is  wood,  and  as  in  China  the  fires  used  for 
cooking  serve  also  for  warming  the  house.  The  stove  of 
the  peasant  home  is  usually  connected  with  a  great  chim- 
ney which  takes  up  one  side  of  the  living  room.  Out 
of  this  chimney  wall  a  ledge  is  made  in  such  a  way 
that  the  fire  runs  under  it,  keeping  it  warm.     This  ledge 


FIRE 


269 


usually  forms  the  common  sleeping  place  of  the  family, 
where  the  father  and  mother,  brothers  and  sisters,  grown- 
ups and  children  all  sleep  at  night,  as  it  were,  on  the  top 
of  the  stove. 


"  The  father  and  mother,  brothers  and  sisters,  grown-ups  and  children  all 
sleep  at  night,  as  it  were,  on  the  top  of  the  stove." 

One  feature  of  every  Russian  village  is  the  bathhouse, 
a  large  building  or  steam  oven  in  which  the  people  go  for 
baths.  They  think  it  is  desirable  ti  perspire  a  great  deal, 
and  sometimes  whip  themselves  with  twigs  to  make  the 
sweat  come. 

Crossing  over  to  Germany,  we  travel  through  the  various 
countries  of  North  Europe,  where  the  climate  is  much  like 
our  own.  Here  the  people  have  s*"oves  and  grates,  and 
the  larger  houses  are  often  heated  by  steam  or  hot  water. 
The  German  stoves  are  usuall\'  f)f  brick  and  porcelain 
made  like  those  of  the  Russians.  They  have  also  stoves 
of  iron,  cast  into  shapes  similar  to  those  of  our  country. 


270 


FIRE 


As  we  go  southward  the  heating  arrangements  are 
poorer,  and  in  the  lands  along  the  Mediterranean  we  find 
ourselves  suffering  more  from  the  cold  than  in  Sweden 
and  Norway,  where  the  weather  is  bitter  cold  a  great  part 

of  the  winter.  The 
reason  is  that  the 
homes  of  southern 
Europe  are  by  no 
means  well  heated. 
The  summers  are 
long,  and  even  in 
winter  it  is  compara- 
tively warm  in  the 
sun,  although  chilly 
inside  and  quite  cold 
at  night. 

We  find,  however, 
that  the  methods  of 


Piling  up  peat  for  fuel  in 


heating  of  nearly  every  locality  vary  with  the  fuel  near  by. 
Europe  has  a  great  deal  of  coal,  and  this  is  especially  so 
in  England,  where  the  houses  are  warmed  much  Hke  our 
own.  Germany  and  Ireland  have  vast  beds  of  peat,  a  fuel 
which  might  be  called  unripe  coal.  It  is  usually  found 
in  low,  swampy  land.  It  is  dug  out  and  laid  upon  the 
firm  ground  to  dry.  It  burns  with  a  dull  glow,  and  gives 
out  a  great  heat. 

Of  the  whole  world,  however,  there  is  no  country  which 
has  more  or  better  fuel  of  all  kinds  than  our  own,  and  none 
which  has  so  many  inventions  for  warming  its  homes.  As 
to  these  things  we  shall  learn  more  in  our  travels  to 
come. 


WARMING   OUR   HOMES  2/1 

31.     WARMING     OUR      HOMES  —  FIREPLACES, 
STOVES,    HOT   WATER,    AND    STEAM 

THE  delightful  fires  of  colonial  days  are  well  described 
by  Whittier  in  his  beautiful  poem  "  Snow-bound," 
which  I  advise  every  one  of  our  party  to  read.  It  pictures 
the  home  life  of  New  England  in  the  depths  of  mid-winter, 
when  the  whole  family  gathered  around  the  great  open 
fireplace  and  cracked  nuts  and  ate  the  apples  they  roasted 
over  the  coals. 

"  Shut  in  from  all  the  world  without, 
We  sat  the  clean-winged  hearth  about, 
Content  to  let  the  north  wind  roar 
In  baffled  rage  at  pane  and  door, 
While  the  red  logs  before  us  beat 
The  frost  line  back  with  tropic  heat ; 
And  ever,  when  a  louder  blast 
Shook  beam  and  rafter  as  it  passed, 
The  merrier  up  its  roaring  draught 
The  great  throat  of  the  chimney  laughed." 

This  is  followed  by  a  jiicture  of  the  scenes  about  the 

fire:  — 

"  The  house  dog  on  his  paws  outspread 
Laid  to  the  fire  his  drowsy  head ; 
The  cat's  dark  silhouette  on  the  wall 
A  couchant  tiger's  seemed  to  fall ; 
And,  for  the  winter  fireside  meet. 
Between  the  andirons'  straddling  feet, 
The  mug  of  cider  simmered  slow. 
The  apples  sputtered  in  a  row, 
And,  close  at  hand,  the  basket  stood 
With  nuts  from  brown  October's  wood. 
What  matter  how  the  night  behaved? 
What  matter  how  the  north  wind  raved? 
Blow  high,  blow  low,  not  all  its  snow 
Could  quench  our  hearth  fire's  ruddy  glow." 


2/2 


WARMING  OUR   HOMES 


In  another  place  in  the  same  poem,  Whittier  tells  how 

the  fire  was  laid :  — - 

"  We  piled,  with  care,  our  nightly  stack 
Of  wood  against  the  chimney  back — 
The  oaken  log,  green,  huge,  and  thick, 
And  on  its  top  the  stout  back  stick ; 
The  knotty  fore  stick  laid  apart, 
And  filled  between  with  curious  art 
The  ragged  brush  ;  then,  hovering  near, 
We  watched  the  first  red  blaze  appear, 
Heard  the  sharp  crackle,  caught  the  gleam 
On  whitewashed  wall  and  sagging  beam. 
Until  the  old,  rude-furnished  room 
Burst,  flowerlike,  into  rosy  bloom." 

Such  fireplaces  were  common  in  our  colonial  times. 
Then  every  family  had  more  wood  than  it  could  use,  and 
fuel  cost  comparatively  nothing.  To-day  the  great  fire- 
place is  to  be  found  only  in  our  forest  regions,  or  on 
the  farms  where  wood  is  still  plentiful.  In  most  localities, 
however,  the  colonial  firejDlace,  so  large  that  whole  logs 

were  rolled  into  it, 
has  disappeared  and 
in  its  stead  we  have 
our  boxlike  stoves 
for  wood,  the  base 
burners  which  eat 
anthracite  coal,  the 
petty  grate,  the  hot 
air  furnace,  and  the 

radiator    or    coil    of 
A  Colonial  fireplace.  .  r^^^     ^         •    ^ 

pipes    filled    with 

steam  or  hot  water   from  a  boiler   in    the    cellar   below. 

These  and  other  inventions  have  given  us  much  better  and 


WARMING   OUR   HOMES 


273 


cheaper  arrangements  for  warming  our  homes;  but  at  the 
same  time  we  long  for  the  delights  of  the  fireplaces  of  the 
past,  and  wish  we  could  be  back  at  the  hearths  of  our  fore- 
fathers roasting  potatoes  in  the  ashes  or  popping  corn  over 
the  coals. 

The  change  from  the  fireplace  to  the  stove,  the  furnace, 
and  the  hot  water  plant  has  come,  as  far  as  the  practical 
use  of  these  things  is  concerned,  within  the  past  century. 


Furnace  room. 


Stoves  of  cast  iron  were  first  made  at  about  the  time 
Columbus  discovered  America,  but  they  were  not  in  general 
use  until  centuries  later.  In  1744  Benjam.in  Franklin 
made  an  iron  lining  for  a  fireplace  which  threw  the  heat 
out  into  the  room,  and  a  little  later  he  invented  a  box  stove 
of  cast  iron  for  the  burning  of  wood.  Shortly  after  the 
beginning  of  the  last  century,  stoves,  with  drums  in  the 
rooms  overhead,  were  emi)loyed  by  the  Pennsylvania  Ger- 

CAKP.  HOL'SES —  1 8 


274 


WARMING   OUR   HOMES 


mans,  and  at  an  early  time  cast-iron  boxes  were  built 
along  one  side  of  a  fireplace  so  that  the  other  end  of  the 
box  projected  into  a  room  in  the  rear,  thus  heating  that 
room. 


Bedroom  with  radiator. 


In  those  times  churches  were  not  heated,  and  each  per- 
son had  a  little  box  stove  which  he  took  with  him  to 
keep  his  feet  warm.  These  foot  stoves  were  sheet-iron 
pans  about  six  inches  square  in  which  hve  coals  were 
placed.  The  pans  were  inclosed  in  casings  of  metal  with 
holes  in  the  top  and  bottom;    and  they  had   handles  by 


276  WARMING   OUR   HOMES 

which  they  were  carried.  Stoves  of  sheet  iron  were  made 
in  Philadelphia  along  about  1800;  and  our  first  base  burners 
were  sold  about  thirty  years  later. 

Our  pioneer  mothers  cooked  most  of  their  food  in  pots 
and  kettles  hung  by  hooks  or  cranes  over  the  coals  of 
the  fireplace.  They  baked  their  potatoes  in  the  hot  ashes, 
and  sometimes  had  a  brick  oven  built  alongside  the  fireplace 
with  an  iron  door  leading  into  it.  On  baking  day  a  wood 
fire  was  started  inside  the  oven,  and  when  it  was  thor- 
oughly hot  the  coals  were  removed  and  bread  placed  on 
the  brick  floor.  The  first  cooking  stove  probably  came  from 
making  an  oven  in  a  box  stove,  after  which  the  modern 
stove  and  range  with  the  holes  upon  top  and  ovens  at  the 
sides  or  overhead  were  invented. 

As  to  the  furnaces  which  give  us  hot  air,  steam,  and  hot 
water,  they  are  now  more  and  more  used.  The  hot  air 
furnace  consists  of  a  compartment  containing  a  fire  and  of 
iron  walls  so  built  about  it  and  so  closed  in  that  the  air 
which  enters  from  outdoors  through  a  flue  passes  between 
the  fire  compartment  and  the  walls.  It  is  thus  warmed, 
.  and  is  then  conducted  to  the  various  rooms  of  the  buildings 
with  which  the  furnace  is  connected  by  means  of  pipes  or 
flues.  The  smoke  is  taken  off  through  a  pipe  which  con- 
nects with  the  fire  only  and  is  joined  to  the  chimney.  The 
heating  pipes  pass  up  inside  the  walls  of  the  house,  and 
the  hot  air  is  admitted  to  the  various  rooms  through  open- 
ings called  registers. 

It  is  strange  that  hot  water  should  have  been  used  for 
heating  long  before  inventions  were  made  for  using  hot 
air.  Seneca  tells  us  that  the  baths  at  Rome  were  heated 
from  a  coil  of  brass  water  pipes  around  which  fires  were 


WARMING   OUR   HO:SIES  2/7 

built ;  and  we  know  that  a  Frenchman  employed  such 
heating  for  hatching  chickens,  and  that  an  Englishman 
heated  his  conservatories  in  a  similar  way  generations 
ago. 

The  first  steam-heating  plant  used  in  America  was  brought 
over  from  England  in  1842  by  Joseph  Nason,  and  it  was 
several  years  later  that  Nason  used  small  wrought-iron 
pipes  about  three  quarters  of  an  inch  thick  for  warming 
buildings  with  steam.  The  first  two  steam-heating  plants 
used  in  our  country  were  in  the  Eastern  Hotel  of  Boston, 
and  in  a  woolen  mill  at  Burlington,  Vermont. 

Since  then  many  improvements  have  been  made  in  house 
warming,  and  it  is  now  possible  to  heat  any  kind  of  a 
building  by  steam  or  hot  water.  In  such  plants  the  fuel 
is  consumed  in  a  furnace  in  the  basement,  connected  with 
which  is  a  boiler  for  heating  the  water  or  making  the 
steam.  From  the  boiler  iron  pipes  carrying  the  hot  water 
or  steam  are  run  through  the  building.  They  are  con- 
nected with  radiators  in  each  room,  the  amount  of  heat 
being  determined  by  the  size  and  number  of  the  radiators. 
The  heat  may  be  regulated  by  the  amount  of  fire  under 
the  boiler,  and  also  by  the  valve  which  lets  the  water  or 
steam  into  each  radiator. 

In  some  cases  several  houses  may  be  heated  from  one 
central  plant,  the  steam  or  hot  water  being  conveyed  from 
the  boilers  in  the  central  station  to  the  various  buildings 
through  underground  pipes. 

Among  other  methods  of  heating  and  cooking  are  those 
connected  with  gas  and  electricity.  In  most  places  these 
are  too  costly  to  be  used  for  warming  the  house,  although 
in  and  near  the  natural  gas  fiekls  many  villages  and  some 


2/8  LIGHTING   THE   HOUSE 

quite  large  towns  are  heated  by  pipes  from  the  gas  wells. 
The  pipes  are  run  through  the  houses,  being  connected 
with  the  stoves,  grates,  or  fireplaces.  When  heat  is  needed 
it  is  only  necessary  to  put  a  lighted  taper  near  the  open- 
ings of  the  pipes,  and  to  turn  the  valve  which  admits  the 
gas.  After  this  it  will  burn  until  it  is  turned  off,  and  at 
the  end  there  are  no  ashes  to  be  taken  away. 

In  such  fires  the  grates  are  often  filled  with  slag,  fire 
brick,  or  other  materials  which,  being  made  hot  by  the 
flames,  look  like  real  coals.  The  imitation  logs  of  clay  or 
iron  used  in  the  fireplace  seem  to  be  blazing  wood ;  while 
sometimes  the  gas  plays  over  asbestos,  making  us  think  of 
sheets  of  gold  leaf  burning  away.  In  many  cities  artificial 
gas  from  the  public  gas  works  is  so  used,  and  in  most  of 
the  apartment  houses  the  cooking  is  done  on  gas  stoves. 


3j«io 


32.     LIGHTING   THE   HOUSE 

BEFORE  we  examine  the  wonders  of  petroleum,  gas, 
and  electricity,  let  us  take  a  look  into  the  past  and 
see  how  our  forefathers  lighted  their  houses.  You  may 
have  read  how  Abraham  Lincoln,  when  he  was  a  boy 
of  ten  or  twelve, read  "yEsop's  Fables,"  "Robinson  Crusoe," 
and  "  Pilgrim's  Progress  "  by  the  light  of  the  pine  knots  in  the 
fireplace  of  his  log  cabin  home.  The  pine  knot  was  one 
of  the  favorite  lights  of  our  colonial  days.  It  was  some- 
times called  the  pine  torch.  It  was  found  almost  every- 
where in  the  forest.  It  was  burned  on  a  flat  stone  placed 
in  a  corner  of  the  fireplace  in  order  that  the  dense  smoke 
from  it  might  go  up  the  chimney. 


LIGHTING  THE   HOUSE 


279 


In  those  times  candles  were  almost  universally  used. 
They  were  made  of  beef  tallow,  and  also  of  a  wax  from 
the  berries  of  the  bayberry  bush.  Nearly  every  family 
made  its  own  candles,  and  all  saved  for  this  purpose  the 
tallow  from  the  beef  which  they  ate.  Making  the  candles 
for  the  winter  was  a  special  occasion  which  consumed  one 


Candle  dipping. 

or  two  days  every  autumn.  At  that  time  the  tallow  was 
melted  in  a  great  kettle  over  a  fire  outside  the  house. 
Then  two  poles  were  supported  on  the  backs  of  chairs 
and  upon  them  the  candle  rods,  small  sticks  about  eighteen 
inches  long  to  which  wicks  were  attached,  were  ])laced. 
In  making  the  candles  the  rod  with  its  row  of  wicks  was 
dipped  into  the  kettle.     The  tallow  stuck  to  the  wicks.     It 


28o 


LIGHTING  THE   HOUSE 


soon  hardened,  and  by  dipping  again  and  again  each  of 
the  wicks  was  surrounded  by  enough  tallow  to  become  a 
candle  of  the  right  size.  This  work  was  slow,  about  two 
hundred  candles  being  all  that  one  person  could  possibly 
make  in  a  day.  In  other  places  the  candles  were  made 
by    running  the   tallow  into    molds  consisting  of    groups 

of  tin  or  pewter  pipes 
through  which  the  wicks 
ran.  There  were  candle 
makers  who  went  from 
house  to  house  carrying 
such  molds,  and  making 
the  candles  for  the 
family  at  so  much  per 
dozen  or  pound. 
Candle  molds.  Another    light   much 

used  in  colonial  times  came  from  the  oil  which  was  brought 
by  the  whalers  of  New  England  from  the  waters  about 
Greenland  and  other  cold  seas.  The  whales  they  caught 
were  frequently  from  sixty  to  one  hundred  feet  long  and 
some  weighed  as  much  as  two  hundred  oxen.  The  oil 
came  from  the  blubber  or  fat  of  the  whale,  of  which  there 
was  a  yellowish  white  mass  under  the  skin  ranging  in 
thickness  from  eight  to  twenty  inches.  After  harpooning 
the  whale  and  killing  it,  the  men  cut  off  this  blubber  in 
large  pieces  and  packed  it  away  in  the  holds  of  the  vessels 
and  thus  brought  it  home.  The  blubber  was  melted  and 
skimmed,  and  the  oil  therefrom  was  burned  in  rude  lamps 
of  pewter  and  glass. 

If  we  could  take  a  rapid  trip   around  the  world,   we 
might  find  many  people  still  using  lights  like  those    our 


LIGHTING  THE   HOUSE  28 1 

forefathers  had.  In  the  wilds  of  Africa  are  tribes  which 
rely  upon  burning  wood  or  palm  nuts  for  their  Hght,  and 
among  the  Eskimos  fish  oil  is  commonly  used.  There 
is  said  to  be  one  fish  in  Alaska  which  contains  so  much 
oil  that,  when  caught  and  killed,  one  may  sink  a  wick  into 
its  back,  and  when  lighted  the  fish  will  burn  like  a  candle. 

In  China  there  is  a  certain  tree  called  the  candle  tree, 
the  wax  from  the  leaves  of  which  can  be  burned,  and  in 
Brazil  grows  a  palm  tree  known  as  the  carnauba,  whose 
leaves  furnish  a  wax  which  is  made  into  candles  and  used 
to  the  extent  of  several  milHon  pounds  every  year.  In 
some  countries  coconut  oil  is  used  for  lighting,  and  in 
others  olive  oil  is  employed  the  same  way. 

Candles  still  form  the  chief  light  of  many  lands.  They 
are  used  largely  in  Europe  and  Asia,  and  the  United  States 
has  great  establishments  which  are  kept  busy  manufactur- 
ing them  for  our  home  market.  There  is  a  candle  factory 
at  Cincinnati  which  makes  one  hundred  thousand  a  day ; 
so  many  that  if  they  were  all  molded  into  one  candle  of  the 
usual  thickness,  it  would  be  thirteen  miles  long. 

It  seems  strange  that  man  should  have  kept  on  for 
centuries  using  such  lights  as  we  have  described,  while  all 
the  time  Nature  was  telling  him  that  she  had  stored  under- 
ground vast  quantities  of  oil  which  would  burn  better  and 
furnish  more  light  than  anything  he  had  yet  been  able  to 
make.  Five  hundred  years  before  Christ,  Herodotus  wrote 
of  oil  wells  on  the  Island  of  Zante;  and  during  the  Middle 
Ages,  Marco  Polo,  a  celebrated  traveler,  told  how  he  saw 
oil  from  near  the  Casjjian  Sea  carried  on  camels  through 
Asia.  At  about  the  same  time  petroleum  taken  from  the 
surface  of  a  lake  in   Bohemia  was  being  sold  as  a  medi- 


282 


LIGHTING   THE   HOUSE 


cine ;  and  a  legend  is  still  current  in  the  Russian  oil  terri- 
tory that  Alexander  the  Great  while  traveling  through 
there  killed  a  boy  by  drenching  him  with  burning  water. 
In  our  own  country,  the  oil  coming  out  on  the  surface  of 
the  earth  had  been  set  on  fire  long  before  the  first  oil  well 
was  dug ;  and  natural  gas  was  lighted  many  years  before 
any  one  thought  of  bringing  it  into  our  homes. 


Scene  in  the  Texas  oil  regions. 

To-day  the  greater  part  of  the  artificial  light  used  by 
man  comes  from  petroleum.  The  amount  taken  from  the 
ground  every  year  is  several  hundred  million  barrels,  or 
enough,  if  it  were. equally  divided,  to  give  more  than  thirty 
gallons  to  every  family  on  earth.  The  places  from  which 
coal  oil  comes  are  widely  scattered,  and  new  fields  are 
being  discovered  from  year  to  year.  Most  of  the  product 
is  now  from  Russia  and  the  United  States,  more  than  half 
of  all  the  oil  raised  coming  from  our  own  continent. 

The   Russian  oil  fields  are  at  the  eastern  end  of  the 


LIGHTING  THE   HOUSE  283 

Caucasus  Mountains,  on  the  shores  of  the  Caspian  Sea, 
and  Europe  has  other  fields  in  Austria  and  Roumania. 
There  are  extensive  petroleum  beds  in  Burma,  and  in  the 
islands  of  Borneo,  Java,  and  Sumatra.  There  are  also  oil 
fields  in  northwestern  Mexico  not  far  from  the  boundary 
of  the  United  States,  and  in  Canada  and  Alaska.  There 
are  some  in  Africa,  Australasia,  South  America,  and  in 
China  and  Japan.  Our  oil  fields  lie  chiefly  along  the 
western  slope  of  the  Appalachian  range  in  New  York, 
Pennsylvania,  and  West  Virginia,  in  the  basin  of  the  Ohio 
River  in  Ohio  and  Indiana,  in  Illinois,  Louisiana,  Texas, 
Oklahoma,  Kansas,  Wyoming,  and  California.  In  all  of 
these  places  a  great  deal  of  oil  is  produced,  and  the  prod- 
uct from  them  not  only  lights  the  most  of  the  United 
States,  but  it  drives  the  darkness  from  the  homes  of  many 
people  of  every  country  of  the  world. 

But  what  is  the  origin  of  petroleum,  and  how  is  it  got 
out  of  the  earth  ? 

The  first  question  is  a  difificult  one,  and  scientists,  who 
have  studied  as  to  how  the  world  is  made,  answer  it  in 
different  ways.  Some  say  that  it  is  altogether  a  mineral, 
and  that  it  comes  from  the  action  of  steam  and  carbon  on 
certain  metals  which  form  a  large  part  of  the  earth. 
Others  suppose  that  it  has  come  from  the  action  of  water 
on  metals,  and  others  that  it  has  resulted  through  the  de- 
cay of  the  countless  plants  and  animals  which  swarmed 
the  seas  before  the  age  at  which  coal  was  formed.  They 
suppose  that  these  plants  and  animals  were  in  some  way 
shut  in  under  layers  of  rock,  so  dense  that  the  air  could  not 
get  to  them,  and  that  they  decayed  and  formed  this  gas 
and  oil. 


284 


LIGHTING  THE   HOUSE 


Now  there  are  many  kinds  of 
rock,  such  as  the  sandstones, 
Umestones,  and  others,  the  grains 
of  which  are  not  very  close  to- 
gether, and  other  rock,  such  as 
slate,  whose  grains  or  particles 
are  so  compact  and  tight  that 
neither  oil  nor  gas  can  pass 
through  them.  The  scientists 
think  that  the  oil  and  gas  were 
soaked  up  by  these  great  beds 
of  porous  rock  just  as  water  is 
soaked  up  by  a  sponge,  and  that 
they  are  held  there  by  the  tight 
rock  above,  below,  and  around 
them.  They  are  inclosed,  as  it 
were,  in  a  prison,  until  man  by 
boring  through  the  tight  rock 
lets  them  loose.  In  such  prisons 
there  is  usually  a  brine  at  the 
bottom,  with  oil  above,  and  per- 
haps gas  upon  top.  When  the 
roof  of  the  prison  is  broken  the 
gas  and  oil  rush  with  great  force 
to  the  surface,  or,  where  the 
pressure  is  not  so  great,  the  oil 
is  drawn  up  by  pumps. 

The  pressure  of  these  earth- 
prisons  varies  in  different  places. 
Sometimes  there  is  so  much  oil  in  the  rock,  and  it  is  so 
squeezed  within  its  prison  walls,  that  when  the  hole   is 


■  Petroleum  rushes  forth,  spout- 
ing high  into  the  air." 


LIGHTING  THE   HOUSE  285 

made  the  petroleum  rushes  forth,  spouting  high  into  the 
air  and  flowing  for  days  and  weeks  before  it  stops. 

In  the  Russian  oil  fields  some  wells  have  been  dug 
which  spouted  from  sixty  to  one  hundred  thousand  bar- 
rels a  day,  and  in  Texas  a  single  well  poured  out  four  hun- 
dred thousand  barrels  of  oil,  covering  the  ground  about 
and  forming  creeks  of  oil  several  miles  long,  before  its 
force  could  be  checked  and  the  oil  saved.  The  "  Star 
and  Crescent,"  another  Texas  well,  threw  a  stream  of  oil 
six  inches  thick  as  high  as  a  twelve  story  house,  and  this 
continued  for  several  days  before  a  cap  could  be  put  over 
the  pipe,  and  arrangements  made  for  saving  the  oil.  One 
Russian  well  wasted  a  hundred  thousand  tons  of  oil  before 
it  could  be  capped,  and  another  sent  up  a  column  of  petro- 
leum two  hundred  feet  high,  which  ran  off  and  formed  a 
little  oil  lake  near  by.  Another  spouted  forth  sand  and 
oil  to  a  height  of  four  hundred  feet;  and  upon  the  pipe 
of  a  fourth  a  plate  of  cast  iron  weighing  twenty-two  tons 
was  laid,  but  the  stream  of  petroleum  threw  it  aside  as 
though  it  were  paper. 

In  most  of  the  oil  beds  the  pressure  is  slight  in  compari- 
son with  that  which  produces  these  great  spoutcrs  or  gush- 
ers, as  they  are  called.  Some  wells  may  not  flow  at  all,  and 
some  yield  only  a  few  barrels  per  day,  requiring  pumps  to 
raise  the  oil  to  the  surface.  Others  flow  steadily  for  weeks 
and  months  and  then  gradually  diminish,  after  which  the 
pumps  arc  put  in. 

Some  of  the  oil  territories  have  continued  to  produce  oil 
a  long  time,  and  in  the  oldest  of  them  excellent  new  wells 
are  occasionally  found.  In  others  the  great  flow  is  soon 
exhausted,  and  it  becomes  less  every  year. 


286  OUR   GREAT   OIL   INDUSTRY 

33.    OUR   GREAT  OIL    INDUSTRY 

THE  first  mention  made  of  petroleum  on  our  continent 
was  by  a  French  missionary  in  1635,  only  fifteen  years 
after  the  Pilgrims  landed  at  Plymouth.  He  had  visited  the 
region  under  the  surface  of  which  the  great  oil  deposits  of 
western  Pennsylvania  lie,  and  he  wrote  of  springs  and 
streams  coated  with  oil.  Later  the  early  settlers  of  Penn- 
sylvania collected  the  oil  for  medicine.  This  was  also 
done  by  the  Seneca  Indians,  who  laid  blankets  upon  the 
ponds  and  streams  and  thus  soaked  up  the  petroleum, 
which  they  wrung  out  and  sold.  After  a  long  time  it 
occurred  to  some  that  if  there  was  so  much  oil  on  the  sur- 
face more  might  be  found  farther  down,  and  in  1854  the 
Pennsylvania  Rock  Oil  Company  sunk  a  well  which 
yielded  from  four  hundred  to  one  thousand  barrels  of  oil  a 
day.  For  some  reason,  however,  this  was  abandoned  ;  and 
it  was  not  until  five  years  later  that  the  well  was  sunk 
which  formed  the  beginning  of  our  oil  industry.  This  was 
after  it  was  discovered  that  the  oil  could  be  refined  and 
used  for  lighting.  Then  E.  L.  Drake  dug  a  well  near 
Titusville,  Pennsylvania,  and  at  seventy  feet  struck  oil. 
The  yield  was  not  large.  The  well  produced  only  a  few 
barrels  a  day,  but  it  showed  the  people  that  the  oil  could 
be  raised  and  other  wells  were  rapidly  sunk. 

From  then  on  the  borings  grew  deeper  and  the  Empire 
well  was  put  down.  It  yielded  twenty-five  hundred  barrels 
a  day,  and  a  month  later  the  Phillips  well  was  producing 
three  thousand  barrels.  By  this  time  people  were  almost 
crazy  over  the  fortunes  to  be  made  from  petroleum.  Hun- 
dreds of  wells  were  sunk,  and  new  oil  fields  discovered. 


OUR   GREAT  OIL   INDUSTRY 


287 


The  miners  bored  their  wells  deeper  and  deeper,  and  some 
of  the  richest  deposits  were  found  at  two  or  three  thousand 
and  more  feet  below  the  ground.  So  much  oil  was  pro- 
duced that  it  was  difificult  to  take  care  of  it.  Great  iron 
tanks,  each  holding  from  twenty  to  forty  thousand  barrels, 
were  erected  in  the  oil  territory,  and  pipes  were  laid  from 
them  to  all  parts  of  the  fields  to  bring  in  the  oil. 


Oil  refinery. 

As  time  went  on  more  and  more  tanks  were  built,  and 
tank  cars  were  constructed  for  carrying  the  oil.  Then  the 
pipes  were  laid  to  Cleveland  and  other  cities,  where  works 
were  erected  for  refining  petroleum,  and  in  time  extended, 
over  the  Appalachian  Mountains,  to  the  seacoast,  so  that 
the  oil  from  the  wells  could  be  pumped  there.  We  have  now 
tens  of  thousands  of  miles  of  iron-pipe  connecting  our  chief 
oil  territories  with  the  seaboard,  the  markets,  and  the  works 
where  the  oil  is  refined.     The  pipe  lines  of  Pennsylvania 


OUR   GREAT   OIL   INDUSTRY 


alone  if  they  were  placed  end  to  end  would  reach  around 
the  world ;  and  there  are  other  extensive  piping  systems  in 
West  Virginia,  Ohio,  California,  Texas,  and  wherever  oil  is 
mined  in  large  quantities.  These  pipes  are  of  wrought  iron. 
They  are  from  four  to  eight  inches  in  diameter  and  are 
usually  laid  two  or  three  feet  underground.  There  are 
pumping  stations  and  storage  tanks  at  every  thirty  miles 
along  their  course  ;  or  such  stations  may  be  placed  other- 
wheres on  the  hills  or  where  it  is  necessary  to  raise  the  oil, 
as  it  travels  over  the  country. 


Storage  tank  for  oil. 

The  transportation  of  American  oil  to  the  homes  of  the 
other  continents  is  also  a  great  industry.  It  is  now  taken 
over  the  oceans  in  tank  steamers,  one  of  which,  such  as  the 
Andromeda,  will  carry  more  than  six  hundred  and  eighty 
thousand  gallons  at  a  load.  The  oil  is  pumped  into  the 
hold  of  the  steamer  as  it  lies  at  our  wharves,  and  rem.ains 
there  until  it  is  pumped  out  again  into  the  great  storage 


OUR   GREAT  OIL  INDUSTRY  289 

tanks    at    some    seaport   of    Europe,   Africa,  Asia,  South 
America,  or  Australia. 

There  is  a  great  difference  in  crude  petroleum  as  it 
comes  from  the  earth.  Some  has  been  found  which  could 
be  used  for  lighting  without  refining,  but  this  is  uncommon. 
Most  of  it  is  thick  and  dark  colored,  and  it  all  contains 
materials  which  must  be  separated  from  that  part  of  it 
which  we  use  in  our  lamps.  The  crude  oil  differs  also  as 
to  the  field  whence  it  comes.  That  of  Pennsylvania,  New 
York,  and  West  Virginia  is  light  amber  in  color,  and  is 
easily  refined,  while  that  of  the  Ohio  and  Indiana  fields  is 
darker  and  heavier  and  it  contains  considerable  sulphur. 
The  Kansas  and  Texas  oils  are  still  darker  and  heavier; 
and  they,  like  the  California  oils,  are  being  largely  used  as 
fuel  on  the  railroad  locomotives  and  for  factories.  The 
latter  oils  are  less  easily  refined ;  they  have  a  disagreeable 
odor,  and,  barrel  for  barrel,  are  not  so  valuable  as  some 
other  oils. 

But  now  let  us  see  how  the  crude  oil  is  treated  to  prepare 
it  for  lighting  our  homes.  As  it  flows  from  the  wells  it  is 
thick  and  dirty,  and  mixed  with  sand  and  water.  It  may 
be  of  a  light  yellow  color  or  dark  green,  brown,  or  black. 
Its  smell  is  offensive,  and,  if  burnt,  the  odor  might  drive  us 
out  of  our  houses.  All  this  must  be  changed  before  it  is 
ready  for  use.  In  addition  to  the  oil  for  lighting,  about 
two  hundred  other  products  are  made  from  crude  petro- 
leum, so  that  it  must  contain  many  substances  of  various 
kinds. 

The  crude  oil  first  goes  to  the  storage  tanks,  where  the 
sand  and  water  in  it  gradually  sink  to  the  bottom.  It  is 
then  pumped  through  pipes  to  the  tanks  of  the  refinery, 

CAKF,  HOUSES —  19 


290  OUR   GREAT   OIL   INDUSTRY 

which  has  many  iron  stills,  furnaces,  and  other  machinery. 
The  oil  is  put  into  the  stills  and  cooked,  as  it  were,  just  the 
right  amount  of  heat  being  supplied.  As  it  grows  warmer 
and  warmer,  the  lighter  particles  rise  in  a  vapor  and  pass 
out  into  coils  of  pipe,  kept  cold  by  running  them  through 
troughs  in  which  cold  water  flows,  or  by  their  being  set  in 
cold  water  tanks.  As  the  vapor  strikes  the  cold  surface  of 
the  pipes,  it  condenses  and  flows  out  at  the  other  end  of 
the  coil  in  a  stream  of  pure  oil.  This  stream  is  very  light 
and  thin  at  the  start,  but  it  grows  thicker  and  heavier  as 
more  heat  is  applied  to  the  still.  The  first  oil  that  comes 
out  is  petroleum  ether,  and  the  next,  a  little  heavier,  come 
gasoline,  naphtha,  and  benzine.  After  these,  with  more 
heat,  comes  the  kerosene  we  use  in  our  lamps,  leaving  in 
the  still  a  heavy,  dark  fluid  from  which  lubricating  oils, 
paraffin,  and  many  other  things  are  made. 

The  kerosene  is  sometimes  washed  with  acid  and  soda, 
and  is  sprayed  through  the  air  and  treated  in  other  ways 
to  further  purify  it,  in  order  that  there  may  be  no  explosive 
gas  left  in  it.  It  is  important  that  it  should  not  ignite  too 
easily,  and  that  its  flashing  and  burning  points  should  be  high. 
By  the  flashing  point  is  meant  the  lowest  temperature  at 
which  the  oil  will  give  off  a  vapor  which  will  flash  or  ex- 
plode when  a  flame  is  brought  near  its  surface.  If  this  is 
not  right,  the  lamp  or  can  in  which  the  oil  is  may  burst, 
like  a  cannon,  or  break  out  in  flames.  If  the  burning  point 
is  too  low,  it  may  ignite  before  we  expect  it  to  do  so.  For 
this  reason  there  are  in  some  parts  of  our  country  laws 
which  require  all  kerosene  to  be  tested  as  to  the  degree  of 
heat  at  which  it  will  flash  or  burn ;  if  that  degree  is  too 
low,  it  must  not  be  sold. 


HOW    GAS    IS    MADE  2QI 

34.    HOW   GAS    IS    MADE 

THE  path  along  which  we  shall  travel  this  morning  is 
lighted  by  rays  from  water  and  stone.  It  seems 
strange  to  draw  light  from  such  things,  but  the  world  has 
many  cities  and  towns  which  are  lighted  by  gas  made 
from  coal,  which  is  one  form  of  stone,  and  from  water, 
which  is  composed  of  two  elements,  hydrogen  and  oxygen. 
The  hydrogen,  when  separated  from  the  oxygen  and  ig- 
nited, burns  with  a  hot,  colorless  flame. 

Of  these  two  gases,  that  from  coal  was  first  used.  It 
is  said  to  have  been  discovered  about  two  hundred  years 
ago  by  John  Clayton,  a  bishop  of  Cork,  in  Ireland,  who 
made  it  by  distilling  soft  coal  and  catching  the  gas  in  a 
bladder.  He  had  no  idea  of  using  it  for  house  Hghting, 
but  looked  upon  it  merely  as  a  curiosity  for  entertaining  his 
friends.  He  would  take  the  bladder  of  gas  and  place  it  near 
the  flame  of  a  candle.  He  would  then  prick  a  hole  with  a 
needle  or  pin,  and  the  gas,  coming  out,  would  take  fire  and 
continue  to  burn  until  all  was  consumed.  The  people  were 
much  surprised  at  this  sight,  because  they  could  sec  no 
difference  between  the  bladder  used  by  the  bishop  and 
one  filled  with  air. 

It  is  said  that  the  great  Dr.  Johnson,  the  man  who 
wrote  "Rasselas,"  once  prophesied  that  London  would  be 
lighted  by  gas.  He  had  seen  a  man  climb  a  ladder  to 
light  one  of  the  oil  lamps  then  used  for  the  streets.  The 
lamp  had  just  gone  out,  and  Dr.  Johnson  noticed  that  the 
wick  caught  in  a  moment  from  the  vapor  or  gas  still  rising 
from  it.  "Ah!"  said  he,  "the  day  may  yet  come  when 
London  will  be  lighted  by  smoke." 


292  HOW  GAS   IS   MADE 

That  remark  of  the  learned  doctor  was  uttered  in  the 
latter  part  of  the  eighteenth  century.  It  was  not  long 
thereafter  that  a  company  was  established  for  putting  gas 
lamps  upon  the  streets  of  London,  and  Paris  was  so  lighted 
in  1820.  In  our  own  country  Baltimore  began  to  light  its 
streets  with  gas  in  1821,  and  Boston  the  year  after  that. 
The  first  man  who  is  known  to  have  used  coal  gas  for 
house  lighting  was  a  Scotchman  named  Murdock.  He 
introduced  such  gas  into  his  own  home  in  1792,  and  soon' 
afterwards  into  some  cotton  mills  at  Manchester,  England. 

But  where  did  man  get  the  idea  that  gas  could  be  made 
out  of  coal .''  It  may  have  come  from  watching  a  fire  of 
soft  coal  where  the  fuel  sometimes  melts  to  pitch,  giving 
forth  a  gas  which  bursts  into  flame.  We  may  see  that 
in  almost  any  fire  of  bituminous  coal  as  it  burns  in  our 
grates.  We  can  also  test  for  ourselves  the  fact  that  there 
is  gas  in  the  coal.  All  we  have  to  do  is  to  fill  the  bowl  of 
a  clay  pipe  with  coal  dust  and  cover  the  top  tight  with 
clay.  We  can  then  put  the  bowl  in  the  fire,  leaving  the 
stem  sticking  out.  Within  a  short  time  the  heat  will  drive 
the  gas  out  of  the  coal  and  it  will  come  through  the  stem 
in  a  thin  stream  which  a  match  will  turn  into  flame.  It  is 
after  this  principle  that  all  coal  gas  is  made. 

But  we  can  see  the  chief  processes  of  manufacturing 
this  light  from  coal  and  water  by  visiting  the.  gas  works 
of  any  large  city.  Suppose  we  take  those  of  Washington, 
the  capital  of  our  nation.  They  supply  much  of  the  light 
for  more  than  seventy  thousand  houses,  and  some  for  the 
White  House,  the  Treasury,  and  the  Capitol  Building, 
although  the  latter  places  have  electric  lights  as  well. 

The  Washington  Gas  Works  are  situated  near  the  banks 


HOW  GAS   IS   MADE 


293 


of  the  Potomac  River,  not  more  than  a  mile  west  of  the 
Executive  Mansion,  where  our  President  lives.  They  con- 
sist of  large  red  brick  structures  filled  with  great  furnaces, 
retorts,  massive  iron  boxes,  and  other  machinery  for  mak- 
ing the  gas  and  also  for  purifying  it  so  that  it  will  furnish 
a  clear  and  bright  light;   for  according  to   law  it  must  be 


Inside  the  gas  works. 

twenty  times  as  bright  as  a  candle.  Outside  the  buildings 
rise  the  mighty  round  tanks  or  towers  for  storing  the  gas 
until  needed.  They  remind  us  of  the  petroleum  tanks  we 
saw  in  the  oil  fields,  save  that  they  are  fitted  into  a  frame- 
work so  that  they  move  up  and  down  in  great  pits  of 
water.  Each  tower  has  a  diameter  equal  to  that  of  the 
largest  circus  tent,  and  at  the  time  of  our  visit  some  are  as 
high  as  a  ten-story  house.  Others  are  shorter,  and  the 
men  tell  us  they  rise  or  descend  as  the  gas  goes  in  or  out. 


294  HOW   GAS   IS   MADE 

We  smell  the  gas  long  before  we  get  to  the  works.  The 
air  has  an  offensive  odor,  and  we  wonder  whether  it  will 
be  dangerous  for  us  to  go  in.  We  first  visit  that  part 
of  the  establishment  where  the  coal  gas  is  made.  At 
one  side  of  it  is  the  coal  shed,  an  enormous  building  which 
will  hold  fifty  thousand  tons  at  one  time.  It  is  half  full  of 
soft  or  bituminous  coal,  for  that  is  the  kind  used  for  coal 
gas.  The  men  are  wheeling  it  in  iron  cars  across  the  way 
to  the  building  containing  the  furnaces  and  retorts,  where 
it  will  be  cooked  until  all  the  gas  has  gone  out. 

We  follow  them  and  are  led  into  a  large  room  almost 
filled  with  what  looks  like  a  series  of  furnaces,  each  entered 
by  a  round  iron  door  above  which  is  an  iron  pipe  as  thick 
as  a  telegraph  pole  running  up  to  its  top.  These  are  the 
retorts.  Each  consists  of  a  huge,  box-shaped  vessel  lined 
with  fire  clay  in  which  the  soft  coal  is  cooked,  the  gas  pass- 
ing off  through  the  pipe.  There  at  one  end  we  can  see  the 
men  putting  coal  in.  They  load  the  black  lumps  into  nar- 
row iron  troughs  about  eight  feet  in  length  and  shove  them 
in  through  the  round,  cast-iron  doors.  As  they  do  so  the 
flames  stream  forth,  and,  looking  in  through  the  doors,  we 
can  see  the  coal  blazing  away.  In  addition  to  its  own 
heat  each  retort  has  that  of  a  coke  furnace  beneath  it,  and 
the  temperature  is  now  about  two  thousand  degrees  Fah- 
renheit, or  almost  ten  times  that  at  which  water  boils.  Now, 
the  men  have  shut  the  doors  and  screwed  them  so  tight 
that  not  a  bit  of  gas  can  come  out.  The  heat  is  melting 
the  coal,  and  the  gas  is  going  up  the  pipe  to  the  top  of  the 
retorts  and  from  there  into  other  pipes  which  carry  it  off 
to  be  purified. 

Now  let  us  take  a  lump  of  coal  from  those  they  are 


HOW   GAS    IS    MADE  295 

throwing  into  the  furnace  and  examine  it.  It  seems 
typical  of  darkness  rather  than  hght.  It  is  black,  heavy, 
and  solid,  and  it  seems  almost  greasy.  It  is  not  at  all  like 
this  piece  of  coke  which  one  of  the  men  brings  to  show  us 
how  it  will  look  after  the  cooking.  The  coke  is  light  and 
spongy,  and  its  color  is  the  gray  of  pig  iron.  The  coal  as 
it  goes  into  the  furnace  contains,  not  only  the  coke  and 
gas,  but  also  tar,  ammonia,  sulphur,  and  other  impurities. 
All  of  these  materials,  excepting  the  coke,  are  mixed  with 
the  gas  when  it  flows  up  the  pipes  from  the  retort,  and 
they  must  all  be  taken  out  of  it  before  it  can  be  used. 
This  is  done  by  forcing  the  gas  through  certain  substances. 
It  first  goes  through  water,  where  the  greater  part  of  the 
tar  and  oily  parts  condense  and  some  of  the  ammonia  is 
washed  out  and  afterward  saved.  It  is  then  whirled  round 
and  round  by  fans  which,  as  they  revolve,  dip  into  water 
and  thus  scrub  the  gas  much  as  clothes  are  cleaned  in  a 
washing  machine.  It  is  by  such  means  that  most  of  the 
impurities  are  removed. 

There  are  some  impurities,  however,  which  require  fur- 
ther treatment.  One  of  these  is  sulphur,  which  gives  the 
gas  a  bad  smell  not  unlike  that  of  bad  eggs.  In  some  works 
this  is  taken  out  by  running  the  gas  through  beds  of  pow- 
dered lime.  Here  at  Washington  it  is  done  by  passing  it 
slowly  through  great  iron  boxes  in  the  bottom  of  which  are 
iron  borings  or  filings,  mixed  with  shavings  of  white  pine. 
The  shavings  are  used  to  keep  the  bits  of  iron  apart,  and 
to  allow  the  gas  to  come  into  contact  with  them.  Other- 
wise they  would  all  sink  together  into  a  solid  bed  at  the 
bottom  of  the  box.  As  the  gas  goes  through  this  mixture, 
the  sulphur  in  it  sticks  to  the  iron,  and  after  a  time  it  has 


296  HOW   GAS   IS   MADE 

all  gone  out  of  the  gas.  Other  things  are  taken  out  in 
various  ways,  and  at  the  end  the  gas  is  comparatively  pure. 
It  is  now  ready  to  be  taken  off  into  the  great  towerlike 
tanks,  which,  as  we  have  seen,  store  the  gas  until  it  is  used. 

As  we'  walk  through  the  works  we  ask  the  men  how 
they  measure  the  gas,  and  they  show  us  the  big  meters, 
each  of  which  on  a  dial  records  the  hundreds  of  thousands 
of  cubic  feet  of  gas  which  pass  through.  They  tell  us  that 
the  cubic  foot  is  the  unit  of  measurement,  and  that  gas  is 
of  value  according  to  the  lighting  power  it  possesses.  The 
standard  is  the  light  of  a  candle,  of  a  certain  weight,  burn- 
ing at  a  fixed  rate  per  hour.  Ordinary  coal  gas  has  seldom 
more  than  sixteen  candle  power.  This  is  not  as  much  as 
the  laws  of  the  District  of  Columbia  require,  and  the  coal 
gas  is  therefore  enriched  with  petroleum  vapor,  which  in- 
creases lighting  power. 

The  men  say  that  one  ton  of  soft  coal  should  furnish 
about  ten  thousand  feet  of  sixteen  candle  power  gas,  and 
that  in  addition  it  contains  fourteen  hundred  pounds  of 
coke,  one  hundred  and  twenty  pounds  of  gas  tar,  and 
about  twenty  gallons  of  impure  liquid  ammonia.  We  col- 
lect specimens  of  the  coal,  coke,  and  tar,  and  of  the  other 
impurities  for  our  museums,  as  we  go  through  the  works. 

Leaving  the  department  where  this  coal  gas  is  made,  we 
move  on  to  the  building  v/here  they  are  so  treating  water 
that  it  will  burn  and  give  forth  a  bright  light.  Is  it  not 
strange  that  we  can  make  water  burn .''  We  have  always 
considered  it  the  opposite  of  fire  and  have  employed  it  in 
extinguishing  flames  of  all  kinds.  But  there  is  no  end  to 
the  wonders  of  chemistry.  By  a  process  which  in  princi- 
ple is  somewhat  like  smelting,  some  of  the  oxygen  of  watei 


HOW   GAS   IS   MADE 


297 


can  be  removed,  leaving  a  gas  that  will  burn.  It  will  not, 
however,  give  a  good  light  without  the  addition  of  carbon, 
and  this  is  suppUed  by  adding  petroleum  vapor.  In  mak- 
ing water  gas,  steam  is  passed  over  coal  raised  to  a  white 
heat.  Some  of  the  oxygen  of  the  steam  unites  with  the 
coal  and  a  mixture  of  partly  burned  carbon  and  hydrogen, 


One  of  these  tanks  will  hold  one  million  cubic  feet  of  gas. 

called  water  gas,  is  formed.  At  the  same  time  a  small 
stream  of  oil  is  let  in.  This  combines  with  the  water  gas, 
forming  the  rich  illuminating  gas  used  in  most  of  our  cities. 
This  gas  is  also  purified,  being  washed  and  scrubbed  just 
like  the  gas  we  saw  made  from  soft  coal.  It  requires  about 
fifty  pounds  of  coal  and  four  or  five  gallons  of  oil  to  make 
one  thousand  cubic  feet  of  such  gas. 

In   Washington    city    the    water    gas    from    anthracite, 
naphtha,  and  water  is  mixed  with   that  from   bituminous 


298  HOW   GAS   IS   MADE 

coal  before  it  is  sent  through  the  pipes  to  the  homes  of  the 
people.  Some  other  cities  use  water  gas  only,  and  in  a 
few  coal  gas  alone  is  consumed.  All  such  gas  is  carried 
from  the  works  through  pipes  to  the  gas  towers  or  storage 
tanks,  and  is  there  kept  and  let  out  into  the  pipes  of  the 
city  as  the  demands  of  the  people  require. 

One  object  of  these  storage  tanks  is  to  force  the  gas  into 
the  homes  of  the  consumers.  Each  tower  is  constructed 
in  sections  which  fit  together  much  like  the  rings  of  a  tele- 
scope, and  it  is  crowned  with  a  gigantic  inverted  cup.  The 
sections  are  so  arranged  that  the  gas  cannot  escape,  and  so 
that  the  walls  and  top  will  rise  as  the  gas  flows  in.  There 
is  water  in  the  bottom  of  the  tank.  The  gas  enters  through 
a  pipe  at  one  side  and  passes  out  through  a  pipe  at  the 
other,  being  controlled  by  a  governor  which  allows  it  to  go 
just  so  fast  and  no  faster.  One  of  the  tanks' of  the  Wash- 
ington plant  will  hold  a  million  cubic  feet  of  gas,  and  there 
is  one  in  London  that  will  hold  twelve  times  that  amount. 

The  gas  is  carried  through  the  city  in  large  iron  pipes 
or  mains  laid  under  the  streets,  and  it  is  taken  from  them 
into  the  houses  through  smaller  pipes  which  connect  by 
others,  still  smaller,  in  their  walls,  with  branch  pipes  and 
brackets  extending  out  into  the  rooms. 

In  addition  to  gas  made  in  these  ways,  we  have  natural 
gas  from  the  same  source  as  petroleum  ;  oil  gas  from  petro- 
leum, tar,  and  shale  oil ;  air  gas,  produced  by  causing  air 
to  pass  through  the  lightest  of  the  petroleum  vapors;  and 
acetylene  gas.  None  of  these  gases,  however,  is  used  to 
anything  hke  the  extent  of  coal  gas  or  water  gas,  although 
acetylene  is  often  employed  for  houses  which  stand  alone 
in  the  country,  and  for  villages  and  small  towns. 


LIGHTING-  BY   ELECTRICITY  299 

Acetylene  gas  is  made  by  adding  water  to  calcium  car- 
bide, a  material  formed  by  heating  coke  powder  and  lime 
in  an  electric  furnace.  This  is  of  such  a  nature  that  when 
water  drops  on  it  a  gas  arises  which  when  ignited,  gives  a 
pure,  clear,  and  very  bright  light. 


35.    LIGHTING    BY    ELECTRICITY 

IN  one  of  the  fairy  stories  of  the  ancient  Greeks  the  light 
of  day  comes  from  a  strong  and  beautiful  youth  named 
Helios,  who,  in  a  chariot  of  fire  drawn  by  four  flaming 
horses,  rises  out  of  the  east  every  morning  and  drives  over 
the  arch  of  the  heavens  to  the  west,  where  he  is  dost  in  the 
twilight  of  evening.  It  was  thus  they  thought  that  the 
gods  harnessed  the  sun  and  made  him  give  daylight  to 
man.  It  remained  for  man  himself  to  harness  the  light- 
ning, and  force  it  to  serve  him  at  night  or  at  any  other 
hour  he  commanded.  We  all  know  that  lightning  comes 
from  electricity,  and  that  its  flashes  are  of  the  same  char- 
acter as  the  brilliant  blaze  of  the  great  arc  light  or  the 
golden  glow  of  the  incandescent  lamp.  It  is  in  this  re- 
spect only  that  we  may  speak  of  man  harnessing  the  light- 
ning. It  would  be  better  to  say  that  he  has  harnessed 
electricity ;  for  the  flashes  which  illuminate  the  sky  are 
merely  exhibitions  of  that  mighty  force. 

It  is  hard  to  explain  just  what  electricity  is.  It  is  only 
recently  that  man  has  known  much  about  it;  and  it  was 
not  until  within  a  generation  or  so  ago  that  any  one  realized 
that  it  could  be  made  to  give  light  for  our  houses  and 
streets.     Even  now  there  is  a  difference  of  opinion  as  to 


(300)  Night  scene  in  New  York,  showing  electric  lights. 


LIGHTING   BY   ELECTRICITY  3OI 

just  how  it  works,  and  we  shall  probably  discover  a  great 
deal  more  concerning  it  as  time  goes  on.  It  is  safe  to  say 
that  it  is  one  of  the  great  forces  of  nature ;  one  of  the 
forms  of  energy  which  is  a  general  term  used  for  the  vari- 
ous forces  that  make  the  wheels  of  the  world  go  round. 
It  is  energy  that  moves  all  kinds  of  matter.  Energy  causes 
the  sun  to  shine,  the  plants  to  grow,  the  fires  to  burn,  and 
the  winds  to  sweep  to  and  fro.  Energy  makes  heat  and 
light.  By  it  water  boils  and,  in  steam,  it  runs  our  railroads 
and  factories. 

From  energy  in  the  form  of  electricity  we  have  much 
the  same  results.  Electric  energy  moves  machinery  of  a 
thousand  kinds.  It  turns  the  wheels  of  the  electric  car 
and  automobile.  It  carries  the  whisper  of  the  telephone, 
and  through  its  brilliant  lamps  we  are  able  to  turn  night 
into  day.  It  is  a  kind  of  energy  which  seems  more  easily 
carried  than  any  other,  and  there  are  certain  materials 
through  which  it  can  be  sent  at  lightning  speed. 

Among  these  are  the  copper  wire  and  other  mediums, 
called  conductors,  which  we  use  for  telegraphs,  telephones, 
street  cars,  and  the  many  things  operated  by  the  electric 
current.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is  very  difficult  to  force  it 
through  certain  materials  such  as  glass  and  rubber,  which 
for  this  reason  are  called  non-conductors.  And  so  man, 
by  using  the  right  sort  of  matter  in  connection  with  it,  can 
imprison  this  energy,  and  carry  it  where  and  how  he  will. 

Moreover,  it  has  been  found  that  electric  energy  works 
in  such  a  way  that  it  will  produce  an  intense  heat  if  it  is 
conducted  through  just  the  right  sort  of  material  in  cer- 
tain fixed  ways.  It  will  create  fire  ;  or  if  the  material  is 
right  and  inclosed  in  a  glass  globe  in  which  there  is  no  air, 


302 


LIGHTING   BY   ELECTRICITY 


it  will  come  to  a  white  heat  and  give  out  a  brilliant  light. 
This  is  the  electric  light  of  the  incandescent  lamp  made  by 
the  medium  within  the  globe  turned  white  hot  by  the  elec- 
tricity going  through  it. 

The  electricity  is  carried  to  the  globe  by  copper  wire, 
and  the  ends  of  the  threadlike  matter  or  filament  within 


Where  electric  machinery  is  made. 

the  globe  are  fastened  to  the  copper  by  fine  wires  of  plati- 
num, another  metal  that  will  carry  electricity  and  at  the 
same  time  withstand  great  heat.  The  platinum  wires  pass 
through  the  glass.  The  fiery  thread  or  medium  within  the 
globe  which  looks  gray  or  black  when  the  electricity  is  not 
passing  through  it,  is  often  made  of  vegetable  fiber,  and 
frequently  of  bamboo,  which  has  been  carbonized  or  turned 


LIGHTING   BY   ELECTRICITY  303 

to  charcoal  by  a  special  process.  If  it  were  out  in  the  air, 
the  electricity  would  burn  it  up  at  once,  but  confined  in  a 
vacuum  or  where  there  is  little  or  no  air  it  grows  white  hot, 
and  is  consumed  so  slowly  that  in  a  lamp  of  sixteen  candle 
power,  with  the  ordinary  current,  it  should  give  out  light 
for  one  thousand  hours. 

In  the  arc  lamps,  or  glass  globes  of  the  size  of  a  foot- 
ball or  larger,  which  are  often  used  for  public  halls  and 
street  lighting,  the  electricity  passes  through  two  sticks  of 
black  carbon  as  big  around  as  one's  finger.  These  are  fit- 
ted into  the  top  and  bottom  of  the  globe  in  such  a  way  that 
their  ends  almost  meet  in  the  center,  and  are  so  controlled 
that  they  are  kept  just  the  right  distance  apart.  The  elec- 
tricity flows  through  the  carbons,  jumping  across  the  space 
between  them  and,  as  it  does  so,  tearing  carbon  dust  from 
the  ends  of  the  sticks,  which  the  intense  heat  consumes. 
In  such  lighting  the  points  of  the  carbons  must  first  be 
brought  together  for  a  moment,  when  the  current  heats 
them  white  hot.  After  that  they  are  moved  the  right  dis- 
tance apart  and  the  electricity  flows  through  the  hot  air 
across  from  one  to  the  other.  This  light  is  not  in  a  vac- 
uum, the  globe  acting  merely  as  a  protector  for  the  carbons. 

But  where  does  this  force  come  from  and  how  can  it  be 
harnessed  so  that  it  will  do  what  we  want  .'*  It  was  a  long 
time  before  man  was  aware  that  any  such  thing  existed, 
and  it  has  been  only  step  by  step  that  we  have  learned 
what  we  now  know.  Long,  long  before  Christ,  a  Greek, 
one  Thalcs  of  Miletus,  wrote  that  amber  when  rubbed 
would  attract  or  draw  to  itself  other  bits  of  matter  or  light 
bodies  placed  near  it.  Several  centuries  later  it  was  shown 
that  other  things  would  do  the  same,  and  as  time  went  on 


304 


LIGHTING  BY  ELECTRICITY 


man  began  to  suppose  there  was  in  nature 

some  such  thing  as  electricity.     Many  great 

scientists  discussed  it  and  among  them  was 

Sir   Isaac   Newton,  the  man  who,  when  he 

saw  an  apple  fall  from  the  tree,  reasoned  out 

the  law  of  gravitation.     Benjamin  Frank Un 

thought  that  lightning  was  produced  by  electricity,  and  he 

tested  it  by  his  silk  kite  through  which  he  received  a  shock 

from  the  clouds.  / 

A  little  later  men  found  that  electricity  could  be  easily 
carried  by  metals  of  various  kinds,  and  an  Italian  named 
Galvani  discovered  the  principle  of  the  galvanic  battery. 
Galvani  had  laid  a  machine  containing  electricity  down  be- 
beside  some  frog  legs  which  his  wife  had  just  skinned  and 
was  about  to  cook  for  the  family  dinner,  when  he  observed 
that  the  frog  legs  jerked  this  way  and  that.  At  first 
he   thought    there    was   electricity  in   the  frogs ;    but  he 

afterwards  discovered  that  the 
muscles  and  nerves  were  sensi- 
tive to  the  electric  current  of 
the  machine  and  were  thus 
affected  by  it.  To  learn  more 
he  hooked  a  pair  of  frog  legs  to 
a  kite  string  and  flying  his  kite 
with  these  at  the  end  near  an 
iron  raihng  discovered  that  they 
began  to  jerk  whenever  they 
touched  the  railing,  electricity 
apparently  running  down  the 
string  from  the  air  although  no 
lightning  was  flashing. 


LIGHTING   BY   ELECTRICITY 


305 


As  a  result  of  these  and  many  other  experiments  men 
finally  discovered  that  a  continuous  supply  of  electricity 
could  be  generated.     It  was  found  that  it  might  be  pro- 


The  5000  horse  power  generators  that  convert  the  force  of  the  cataract 
into  the  electric  currents  at  Niagara  Falls. 

duced  by  chemical  action,  and  also  by  means  of  the 
dynamo,  which  consists  of  two  rapidly  revolving  blocks  of 
magnetic  iron  about  which  wire  has  been  coiled.  The 
machinery   for  generating   electricity  is  complicated,  but 

CAKK  HOUSES  —  20 


3o6 


LIGHTING   BY   ELECTRICITY 


we  can  see  something 
of  it  by  going  to  an)i 
large  electric  works 
such  as  those  that  run 
the  street  cars  and  light 
plants  of  our  cities.  It 
is  enough  here  to  say 
that  by  means  of  steam 
or  gas  engines,  con- 
nected with  such  mag- 
nets, we  are  able  to  pro- 
duce electricity,  and 
that  we  can  do  this  more 
easily  and  cheaply  by 
such  water  power  as  is 
found  in  many  parts  of 
the  world.  The  Ni- 
agara River  at  Niagara 
I'^alls,  by  means  of  a 
great  tunnel  through 
which  the  water  drops 
upon  turbine  wheels,  is 
able  to  generate  a  vast* 
deal  of  such  energy. 
The  electricity  is  car- 
ried to  Buffalo  and  other 
cities,  and  it  lights  their 
houses  and  streets.  It 
also  moves  the  street 
cars  and  forms  the  motive  power  for  machinery  of  a  hun- 
dred kinds. 


Metropolitan  Building  at  night. 


LAMPS   AND   BURNERS.      HOW   MATCHES  ARE   MADE        307 

Many  of  the  cities  and  towns  c5f  the  United  States  are 
now  lighted  by  the  waterfalls  near  them.  Among  the 
most  remarkable  of  these  is  Spokane,  Washington,  where 
the  Spokane  River  dashes  down  over  the  rocks  with  great 
force  as  it  flows  on  towards  the  Columbia.  Connected 
with  the  Spokane  Falls  huge  spouts  or  pipes  have  been  set 
into  the  bed  of  the  river,  and  the  force  of  the  water  falling 
through  these  is  carried  to  dynamos,  which  generate  a 
current  that  lights  thousands  of  homes.  Seattle  is  lighted 
largely  by  the  force  of  the  Snoqualmie  Falls,  which  are 
forty  miles  away;  and  Los  Angeles  gets  its  light  from 
the  aqueduct  that  brings  water  to  it  from  Owens  River,  a 
stream  in  the  Sierra  Nevada  240  miles  distant.  This  long 
aqueduct  is  made  up  of  canals  and  tunnels,  and  in  places  a 
drop  of  several  hundred  feet  is  utilized  for  water  power. 

The  electricity  used  in  San  Francisco  is  also  carried  a 
long  distance,  and  if  we  should  travel  over  Europe,  we 
should  find  many  cities  and  towns  which  are  getting  their 
light  and  power  from  the  waterfalls  near  them. 

36.     LAMPS   AND    BURNERS.      HOW   MATCHES 
ARE    MADE 

THE  light  from  oil,  gas,  or  electricity  depends  largely 
on  the  lamps  through  which  the  light  comes.  In 
electricity  we  have  various  inventions  which  greatly  in- 
crease the  illuminating  power  of  the  current.  The  Nernst 
lamp  uses  a  small  rod  instead  of  a  thread,  and  the  light 
is  not  burned  in  a  vacuum.  The  rod  is  a  combination  of 
magnesia  and  certain  rare  earths,  and  it  gives  out  a  brilliant 


308       LAMPS  AND   BURNERS.     HOW    MATCHES   ARE   MADE 

light.  Another  strong  light  is  produced  by  using  a  metal 
called  tungsten  in  place  of  the  thread  of  carbon,  and  other 
electric  lights  are  made  by  other  materials. 

In  gas  lighting  the  flame  is  largely  governed  by  the  jet 
or  burner  through  which  the  gas  flows.  This  in  the 
ordinary  light  is  a  short  brass  tube  an  inch  or  so  long,  and 
about  as  thick  as  a  lead  pencil.  Inside  it  is  a  little  strainer 
made  of  wire  netting  to  catch  any  impurities  in  the  gas, 
and  at  the  top  is  a  tip  of  fire  clay  or  perhaps  of  aluminium, 
pierced  by  a  little  hole  through  which  the  gas  comes. 

The  intensity  of  the  flame  is  often  increased  by  various 
burners,  or  by  mantles  which  fit  over  the  jet.  The 
mantle,  for  instance,  is  a  little  white  hood  to  be  used 
inside  a  chimney.  The  hood  is  made  of  a  net  of  cotton 
thread  soaked  with  the  oxides  of  certain  metals.  When 
the  gas  is  lighted  the  cotton  burns  out,  and  leaves  a  skeleton 
network  of  these  metals,  which  being  heated  white  hot  by 
the  flame  greatly  increases  the  light.  Such  mantles  are 
largely  employed  in  street  lighting,  and  also  in  public  halls 
and  houses  where  much  light  is  desired. 

The  story  of  the  lamp  goes  back  to  the  beginnings  of 
things.  Homer,  the  ancient  Greek  who  wrote  for  us  the 
fairy  tales  of  Ulysses,  refers  to  the  festival  of  lamps' 
which  was  held  in  his  day,  almost  one  thousand  years 
before  Christ.  Bronze  lamps  have  been  found  which 
were  used  by  the  lake  dwellers  of  Switzerland,  who  lived 
so  long  ago  that  we  know  little  about  them  ;  and  in  the 
pubHc  museums  are  hundreds  of  lamps  of  stone,  clay,  and 
bronze  which  have  been  dug  from  the  ruins  of  the  great 
cities  of  the  past.  We  have  terra  cotta  lamps  which  were 
used  in  Babylon  ages  ago,  bronze  lamps  which  came  from 


Roman  candelabrum   (a)  and  lampstands  {h,  c). 


Roman  lamps. 


(309; 


310     Lamps  and  burners,    how  matches  are  made 

Athens,  and  clay  lamps  from  Carthage.  I  remember  once 
while  traveling  through  Egypt  near  the  site  of  old  Mem- 
phis, I  bought  a  clay  lamp  which  my  guide  said  dated 
back  to  the  times  of  the  Pharaohs.  It  was  dug  from  one 
of  the  tombs  and  the  man  who  sold  it  offered  me  the  little 
finger  of  a  mummy  which  had  been  found  near  the  lamp. 

The  first  lamp  was  probably  a  shell  filled  with  fat,  with 
a  bit  of  dried  moss  as  a  wick.  Later  came  lamps  of  clay, 
and  later  still  lamps  of  bronze,  iron,  and  other  metals. 
The  Greeks  and  Romans  made  beautiful  lamps  stamped 
on  the  bottom  with  the  name  of  the  maker;  and  iron  and 
brass  lamps  of  many  kinds  were  in  use  during  the  Middle 
Ages. 

The  light  from  all  of  these  lamps  was  pale,  smoky,  and 
flickering,  and  it  was  not  until  modern  times  that  man 
began  to  study  how  to  increase  the  brilliancy  of  the  flame. 
The  first  great  improvement,  which  was  made  only  a  little 
more  than  a  hundred  years  ago,  was  the  flat,  woven,  ribbon- 
like wick,  fitted  into  a  frame  so  that  only  a  small  surface 
could  be  burned  at  a  time.  Then  came  the  round  wick  or 
Argfand  burner,  named  after  the  Swiss  who  invented  it, 
and  later  still  the  student  lamp,  made  by  a  German. 
Argand  used  an  iron  chimney  for  his  light,  with  an  opening 
through  which  the  flame  could  be  seen  ;  and  it  was  one  of 
his  workmen  who  first  suggested  chimneys  of  glass.  This 
man  was  trying  to  heat  a  bottle  over  the  lamp  when  the 
heat  cracked  off  the  bottom.  At  the  same  time  the  glass 
grew  very  hot,  and  he  dropped  it  over  the  flame.  The 
result  was  that  the  flame  shone  out  through  the  glass,  and 
gave  a  steadier  light  than  could  be  produced  by  the  sheet 
iron  chimney.     It  was  in    1800  that  Carcel  made  a  lamp 


LAMPS   AND   BURNERS.      HOW   MATCHES   ARE   MADE       31I 

with  a  clockwork  attachment  by  which  the  wick  was  raised 
bit  by  bit  as  the  clock  ticked  ;  and  later  still  small  hand 
lamps  were  made  of  tin,  brass,  and  pewter. 

The  first  lamps  used  in  the  United  States  were  those 
brought  over  from  Europe  by  our  colonial  forefathers. 
The  Indians  then  lighted  then  wigwams  with  pine  torches, 


Colonial  lamps. 

and  the  only  tribes  which  had  lamps  were  the  Eskimos, 
who  used  shallow  vessels  of  stone,  bone,  or  clay  in  which 
they  burnt  the  oil  of  the  seal,  walrus,  or  whale,  with  dry 
moss  as  a  wick.  Such  lamps  arc  to  be  found  in  Alaska 
to-day. 

The  chief  lamps  of  the  Pilgrims  were  known. as  Betty 
lamps.  They  were  made  of  forged  or  cast  iron,  and 
were  often  of  a  pear  shape  witli  a  place  for  the  wick  in  the 


312   LAMPS  AND  BURNERS.   HOW  MATCHES  ARE  MADE 

top.  Others  were  like  candlesticks,  with  a  vessel  on  the 
top  and  a  saucer  to  catch  the  oil  if  it  dripped  down  or  ran 
over.  The  first  of  the  Bettys  were  imported  from  England, 
but  later  on  they  were  manufactured  at  Portsmouth,  New 
Hampshire,  and  Newbury,  Massachusetts,  and,  for  this 
reason,  were  known  as  Portsmouth  or  Newbury  Bettys. 

We  have  already  seen  how  Benjamin  Franklin  gave  us 
some  of  our  first  knowledge  of  electricity  through  flying 
his  kite,  and  how  he  invented  one  of  the  stoves  of  our 
colonial  days.  We  are  also  indebted  to  him  for  an  early 
improvement  on  lamps.  Franklin's  father  was  a  candle 
maker  in  Boston  and  when  Benjamin  was  a  little  boy  he 
had  to  cut  the  wicks  for  the  candles  and  fill  the  molds 
with  the  melted  grease.  He  did  not  like  the  work,  and 
when  he  grew  to  a  man,  he  planned  a  lamp  which  would 


Colonial  lamps. 


Lii-MPS   AND   BURNERS.      HOW   MATCHES  ARE   MADE       313 

give  out  more  light  than  several  of  the  candles  he  had 
made  as  a  boy.  This  lamp  had  two  round  tubes  through 
which  two  loosely  braided  cotton  wicks  ran,  extending 
down  into  a  tube  of  whale  oil.  Franklin  did  not  patent 
this  invention,  but  it  came  into  general  use,  and  proved  to 
be  better  than  any  lamp  employed  up  to  that  time. 

After  this  many  other  improvements  of  more  or  less 
value  were  made,  but  they  were  all  for  lamps  which  burnt 
lard  or  fish  oil,  and  it  was  not  until  the  great  lighting  value 
of  coal  oil  was  discovered  that  we  had  the  lamps  which 
give  the  brilliant  light  of  to-day.  For  these  we  are  in- 
debted largely  to  Samuel  Kier,  a  druggist  of  Pittsburgh, 
who  was  one  of  the  first  men  to  refine  coal  oil  and  employ 
it  for  lighting.  In  the  latter  process  he  surrounded  the 
flame  with  a  glass  chimney,  using  an  Argand  burner, 
thereby  producing  a  beautiful  light.  Kier  did  not  invent 
the  chimney,  for  as  we  have  seen  that  had  already  been 
discovered  by  the  man  who  was  working  for  Argand,  but 
he  adapted  it  to  the  coal  oil  lamp,  and  it  soon  came  into 
general  use. 

Now  let  us  shut  our  eyes,  and  for  the  moment  suppose 
that  we  are  little  children  living  two  hundred  years  ago. 
Let  each  imagine  that  his  parents  have  told  him  to  light 
the  fire  or  the  candle  and  wonder  how  he  is  to  go  about 
doing  it.  He  cannot  use  matches,  for  such  things  have 
not  yet  been  invented.  He  takes  up  a  splinter  and  starts 
towards  the  fireplace.  But  alas,  the  fire  has  gone  out,  and 
there  are  only  ashes  and  dead  charcoal  on  the  black  hearth. 
The  only  ways  in  which  he  can  get  light  are  by  the  methods 
of  fire  making  then  known.  He  debates  for  a  moment 
whether  he  shall  take  a  flint  and  strike  it  on  steel,  so  that 


314       LAMPS   AND   BURNERS.      HOW   MATCHES  ARE   MADE 

the  sparks  will  fall  on  some  dry  tinder  or  kindling,  which 
he  can  then  blow  into  a  flame  ;  or  whether  he  shall  roll  one 
stick  of  wood  rapidly  around  in  a  hole  made  inside  another, 
and  by  friction  gradually  bring  smoke  and  a  blaze. 
Either  way  is  difficult,  and  as  he  has  had  no  experience  he 
will  probably  fail. 

Indeed,  the  light  which  w^e  now  get  by  simply  striking  a 
match  was  hard  to  create  only  a  few  generations  ago. 
Then  every  family  covered  the  coals  in  the  fireplace  with 
ashes  before  going  to  bed,  and  kept  at  least  one  fire  burn- 
ing throughout  the  year.  Our  colonial  forefathers  had 
boxes  of  flint  and  steel  in  their  houses;  and  as  they  found 
that  scorched  linen  would  quickly  ignite,  they  saved  their 
old  handkerchiefs  and  worn-out  sheets  and  charred  them, 
in  order  that  they  might  catch  upon  them  the  sparks  from  the 
flint.  The  guns  had  flintlocks,  and  thereby  lit  the  powder, 
and  the  hunter  often  used  his  gun  flint  to  start  the  camp  fire. 

It  was  not  until  1827  that  the  lucifer  match,  that  could 
be  lighted  by  friction,  was  invented,  although  it  was  known 
that  the  materials  used  in  making  it  could  be  ignited  long 
before  that.  The  first  matches  were  made  by  dipping 
little  sticks  of  wood  into  a  compound  of  brimstone,  chlo- 
rate of  potash,  and  some  other  materials.  They  were  then 
dried,  and  were  lit  by  drawing  them  through  a  piece  of 
folded  sandpaper.  Later  they  were  made  so  that  they 
would  strike  upon  being  drawn  over  any  rough  and  dry 
surface ;  and  now,  after  many  improvements  of  various 
kinds,  matches  are  used  throughout  the  world. 

We  make  so  many  matches  in  the  United  States  that  we 
could  each  use  five  every  day  and  have  some  to  spare.  We 
produce  so  many  in  one  year  that  if  they  were  all  laid  end 


LAMPS   AND   BURNERS.     HOW   MATCHES   ARE   MADE        315 

to  end,  they  would  reach  four  million  miles,  or,  if  placed  in 
rows  side  by  side,  would  make  a  band  around  the  earth  more 
than  one  foot  in  width. 


Match-making  machines. 

The  first  matches  were  made  in  England.  The  splints 
were  cut  by  hand,  and  the  manufacture  was  so  costly  that 
they  sold  at  the  rate  of  three  or  four  for  a  cent.  Then 
machines  were  gradually  invented,  and  now  they  are  very 
cheap.  We  have  single  machines  which  will  make  four 
million  matches  a  day. 

The  wood  most  commonly  used  for  matches  is  pine, 
thoroughly  dried  and  sawed  into  match  lengths.  The 
blocks  are  then  put  into  an  automotic  feeder,  which  carries 
them  to  the  machine  where  they  are  cut  into  shape.  The 
machine  cuts   forty-eight  matches  at  one  stroke,  and  it 


3l6        LAMPS   AND   BURNERS.     HOW   MATCHES   ARE   MADE 

makes  several  hundred  strokes  every  minute.  At  the  same 
time  it  sticks  the  matches  in  a  flexible  cast-iron  band,  where 
they  stand  out  like  the  bristles  in  a  brush,  and  upon  .which 
they  travel  around  wheel  after  wheel,  dipping  the  ends  into 
the  vats  which  give  them  their  caps  of  sulphur,  paraffin, 
phosphorus,  and  other  lighting  materials.  The  matches, 
still  in  the  band,  are  then  carried  through  blasts  of  cool  air, 
until  they  are  dry  and  ready  to  pack.  These  machines  are 
reliable.  They  will  not  handle  broken  matches,  and  the 
dust  and  splinters  drop  out  and  are  carried  down  into  the 
furnaces  which  furnish  the  steam  for  the  works.  Each 
machine  will  turn  out  several  million  matches  per  day,  and 
it  requires  only  twelve  hands  to  operate  it. 

The  matches  are  packed,  by  girls,  into  boxes  which  con- 
tain from  sixty-five  to  five  hundred  each.  The  girls  have 
seats  at  circular  tables,  which  revolve  as  the  matches  fall 
on  them.  The  boxes  are  also  made  by  machinery,  the 
sheets  of  pine  or  straw  board  of  which  they  are  composed 
going  in  at  one  end  and  coming  out  at  the  other  in  boxes. 
This  machinery  saves  a  great  deal  of  labor. 

The  match  business  is  done  in  numerous  factories,  a 
single  one  of  which  turns  out  as  many  as  one  hundred 
million  matches  per  day.  They  make  matches  of  wax 
and  paper  as  well  as  of  wood.  They  manufacture  also 
the  safety  match  that  lights  only  upon  striking  the  sides 
of  the  boxes,  which  are  coated  with  a  special  preparation 
of  phosphorus  and  powdered  glass  or  emery  that  causes 
it  to  burst  into  flame.  There  is  no  phosphorus  in  the  head 
of  the  safety  match  ;  but  this  is  put  on  the  box,  and  when 
the  match  is  rubbed  over  it  the  explosion  occurs  which 
produces  the  light. 


THE   OLD   OAKEN   BUCKET  AND   ITS   SUCCESSORS       317 

37.     THE   OLD    OAKEN    BUCKET   AND    ITS 
SUCCESSORS 

"How  dear  to  this  heart  are  the  scenes  of  my  childhood, 
When  fond  recollection  presents  them  to  view! 
The  orchard,  the  meadow,  the  deep-tangled  wildwood, 
And  every  loved  spot  which  my  infancy  knew  ! 
The  wide-spreading  pond,  and  the  mill  that  stood  by  it, 
The  bridge,  and  the  rock  where  the  cataract  fell, 
The  cot  of  my  father,  the  dairy-house  nigh  it. 
And  e'en  the  rude  bucket  that  hung  in  the  well  — 
The  old  oaken  bucket,  the  iron-bound  bucket, 
The  moss-covered  bucket  which  hung  in  the  well. 

"That  moss-covered  vessel  I  hailed  as  a  treasure, 
For  often  at  noon,  when  returned  from  the  field, 
I  found  it  the  source  of  an  exquisite  pleasure. 
The  purest  and  sweetest  that  nature  can  yield. 
How  ardent  I  seized  it,  with  hands  that  were  glowing, 
And  quick  to  the  white-pebbled  bottom  it  fell ; 
Then  soon,  with  the  emblem  of  truth  overflowing. 
And  dripping  with  coolness,  it  rose  from  the  well^ 
The  old  oaken  bucket,  the  iron-bound  bucket, 
The  moss-covered  bucket  arose  from  the  well." 

THE  old  oaken  bucket  is  rapidly  becoming  a  thing  of 
the  past.  The  modern  pump  has  taken  its  place,  and 
in  our  cities  and  towns  the  public  works  which  give  every^ 
home  its  water  supply  have  consigned  it  to  the  things 
forgotten.  Even  far  out  in  the  country,  upon  many  of 
our  farms,  we  have  harnessed  old  Eolus,  whom  the  Greeks 
regarded  as  the  God  of  the  Winds,  and  have  made  him 
turn  the  wheels  of  the  windmills  which  operate  our  pumps, 
and,  in  many  instances,  are  making  the  gasoline  or  steam 
engine  do  the  same. 

The  methods  by  which  we  draw  water  from  the  depths  of 


3l8       THE   OLD   OAKEN   BUCKET   AND   ITS   SUCCESSORS 


the  earth,  and  send  it  to  every  part  of  our  houses,  are 
among  the  wonders  of  this  world  of  industry  through 
which  we  are  traveling.  They  do  not  seem  very  remark- 
able to  us,  because 
they  are  before  us 
everyday.  But  should 
we  investigate  how 
our  little  world  broth- 
ers and  sisters  of  the 
nations  far  away  pro- 
cure water,  we  should 
see  that  we  are  far 
better  off,  and  be 
thankful. 

Suppose,  for  in- 
stance, we  make  a 
visit  to  one  of  the 
smaller  cities  of 
Korea.  The  water 
comes  from  wells  and 
it  is  taken  from  house 
to  house  by  men  or 
boys  who  do  nothing 
else.  The  boy  draws  up  the  water  and  carries  it  in  two 
great  pails  fastened  to  a  framework  which  rests  on  his 
back.  Each  family  pays  so  much  a  day  or  month  for  its 
water,  and  you  may  be  sure  that  the  children  are  warned 
against  wasting  it.  It  is  so  costly  that  the  family  washings 
are  taken  to  the  streams;  and  as  for  bathrooms,  they  are 
almost  unknown. 

It  is  much  the  same  in  China  and  India.     In  the  latter 


The  oM  oaken  bucket. 


THE   OLD   OAKEN   BUCKET  AND   ITS   SUCCESSORS       319 


country  water-carrying  is  a  regular  trade  followed  by  cer- 
tain families  or  castes  from  generation  to  generation,  hi 
the  cities  of  Egypt 
drinking  water  .is 
sold  on  the  streets, 
and  in  Manchuria 
the  water  man  has 
a  great  samovar  or 
tea  pot,  from  which 
he  sells  it  steaming 
hot  to  his  customers. 
In  Morocco  and  Al- 
geria the  water  is 
drawn  from  the 
wells  in  goatskins 
and  carried  in  such 
skins  through  the 
streets  on  the  backs 
of  men.  In  Tripoli 
I  have  seen  it  ped- 
dled about  from 
large  barrels  slung 
across  the  humps  of 
grumbling  camels, 
which  knelt  beside 
the  wells  and  wept 
real  tears  while  they 
were  loaded.  ^  ^"""""y  ^""'^  ^^'^''  P'^"'- 

In  many  parts  of  the  world  the  fetching  the  water  is  the 
work  of  the  women,  just  as  cooking,  sewing,  and  dish 
washing  are  with  us.     This  is  especially  true  of  Palestine, 


320      THE   OLD   OAKEN   BUCKET  AND   ITS   SUCCESSORS 


where  girls  may  be  seen  at  the  pubhc  wells  awaiting  their 
turn,  as  was  Rebecca  when  young  Jacob  met  her  and 
fell  in  love  with  her.  The  little  girl  of  the  Holy  Land 
begins  to  carry  water  almost  as  soon  as  she  can  walk.  At 
first  she  has  only  a  small  jar  which  she  bears  on  her  head. 
As  she  grows  older  this  becomes  larger,  so  that  when  full 
grown  she  is  able  to  carry  three  or  four  gallons.    Such  a  jar 

when  filled  weighs 
thirty  or  forty 
pounds,  but  the 
woman  balances  it 
on  her  head  and 
walks  along  without 
touching  it. 

In  countries  like 
those  referred  to  the 
water  supply  is  often 
from  springs  or 
streams,  or  cisterns 
and  pools.  Most  of 
the  water  of  Jerusa- 
lem, is  from  cisterns, 
each  of  the  larger 
houses  having  one 
in  the  court  in  its 
center.  Outside  that  city  is  the  Pool  of  Siloam,  and  from 
other  pools  comes  the  water  used  by  many  homes.  In 
some  parts  of  Australia  the  people  rely  upon  the  rains, 
which  fall  copiously  during  a  part  of  the  year.  The  rain 
from  the  roof  is  carried  by  spouts  into  great  tanks  of  gal- 
vanized iron,  which  rest  upon  the  porches.     The  water  is 


Algerian  water  carrier. 


THE  OLD   OAKEN    BUCKET   AND   ITS   SUCCESSORS 


!2I 


cooled  for  drinking  by  putting  it  into  canvas  bags  and 
hanging  them  where  the  wind  blows.  Some  of  the  water 
soaks  through  the  bag,  and  the  evaporation  of  this  makes 
that  inside  as  cool  as  though  fresh  from  a  spring. 

In  regions  where  there  is  no  rain  for  a  part  of  the  year, 
cisterns  are  very  important.  They  are  usually  made  of 
stone  or  brick  so  cemented 
together  that  they  will  hold 
water;  and  they  are  placed 
where  they  will  catch  the 
rainfall.  Many  of  the 
ancient  cities  had  such  stor- 
age tanks  ;  and,  as  we  shall 
see  later,  our  own  cities  have 
reservoirs  in  which  the  water 
from  streams  or  wells  is 
stored  and  held  to  be  let  out 
as  needed. 

Some  of  the  most  remark- 
able of  the  ancient  cisterns 
were  those  of  Carthage,  con- 
structed about  500  B.C.  They  were  fed  by  the  rains,  and 
by  springs  far  away  in  the  mountains,  the  water  being 
carried  in  great  stone  troughs  built  high  up  above  the 
ground  on  pillars  of  masonry.  These  cisterns  could  supply 
six  million  gallons  of  water  a  day.  They  were  enormous 
barrel-shaped  caverns  eighty  feet  thick  and  more  than 
four  hundred  feet  long,  with  pipes  running  from  them 
to  the  various  parts  of  the  city.  When  I  visited  the 
site  of  old  Carthage  a  year  or  so  ago,  I  found  most  of 
these  old  reservoirs  in  ruins  with  Arabs  living  in  them. 

CARP.  HOUSES  —  21 


Water  carriers,  mid-Afnoa. 


322       THE   OLD   OAKEN   BUCKET   AND   ITS   SUCCESSORS 

In  one  a  Bedouin  woman  was  grinding  corn  between  two 
stones,  and  in  another  was  stabled  a  tiny  gray  donkey 
with   a  pretty  little  Arab  girl  standing  beside  it. 


Cisterns  of  Carthage. 


Others  of  the  cisterns  have  been  repaired,  and  some  are 
now  used  to  supply  water  to  the  towns  and  villages  near 
by.  These  are  thirty  feet  deep,  and  five  hundred  feet 
long.  They  are  connected  with  steam  engines  which  do 
the  pumping.  The  old  aqueduct  has  been  repaired  and 
!  with  some  modern  additions  it  now  gives  water  to  the  city 
of  Tunis,  which  is  not  far  from  where  Carthage  once  stood. 
In  olden  times  and  indeed  until  recently  a  great  part  of 
the  water  used  by  man  came  from  dug  wells.  This  was  so 
in  America  during  our  colonial  days,  and  it  is  still  true  of 
many  of  the  less  civilized  countries  of  the  world.  In  India 
wells  twenty  or  thirty  feet  in  diameter  have  been  dug  far 
down  into  the  earth.  They  are  often  used  for  irrigation, 
the  water  being  drawn  by  bullocks  in  great  bags  of  cow- 


THE   OLD   OAKEN   BUCKET  AND   ITS   SUCCESSORS       323 

skins  and  poured  into  canals  through  which  it  goes  over 
the  fields.  Egypt  has  many  wells  worked  by  the  sakiyeh, 
a  wheel  turned  around  by  a  blindfolded  bullock,  camel, 
or  water  buffalo.  The  wheel  has  cogs  which  fit  into  the 
cogs  of  a  vertical  wheel  to  the  rim  of  which  clay  jars  are 
fastened.  The  vertical  wheel  extends  down  into  the  well, 
and  as  it  turns  the  jars  dip  into  the  water  and  fill,  emptying 
into  a  trough  as  it  turns.  There  are  wells  in  all  the  oases 
of  the  Sahara,  and  in  the  fertile  spots  of  most  desert  regions. 
There  are  many  in  China  and  Japan,  and  in  Europe,  and 
in  most  other  countries  of  the  world. 


"Tne  sakiyeh,  a  wheel  turned  arounc  by  a  blindfolded  bullock." 

./ 
\ 

Our  wells  of  to-day  are  different  from  those  of  the  past. 
Instead  of  digging  a  great  hole  in  the  earth  and  rock  and 
walling  it  with  brick  or  stone,  we  now  use  machinery  to 


324 


THE   OLD   OAKEN  BUCKET   AND   ITS  SUCCESSORS 


drill  or  bore  a  hole  from  three  to  eight  inches  in  diameter 
far  down  into  the  earth,  and  tap  the  porous  rock  into 
which  the  water  from  above  has  drained.  This  rock  is  often 
surrounded  by  other  rock  of  such  a  nature  that  the  water 
cannot  pass  through  it,  the  porous  rock  thus  forming  a 
spongelike  reservoir  which   holds  the  water.     Such  rock 


A    modern  bathroom. 


may  lie  not  far  from  the  surface,  or  it  may  be  hundreds  of 
feet  below  it  with  hard  rocks  above.  Some  of  the  bored 
wells  are  half  a  mile  deep,  and  several  have  been  sunk 
more  than  a  mile  straight  down  through  the  rock.  There 
is  one  at  Pittsburgh  which  is  more  than  forty-six  hundred 
feet  deep,  and  another  at  St.  Louis  which  measures  over 
thirty-eight  hundred  feet.     One  of   the  deepest  of  such 


THE   WATER   SUPPLY   OF   GREAT   CITIES  325 

wells,  near  Leipzig  in  Germany,  goes  five  thousand  seven 
hundred  and  thirty-five  feet  down  into  the  earth. 

In  driUing  such  wells  when  the  porous  rock  is  first 
struck  the  water  often  rushes  up  with  great  force.  One 
was  put  down  near  Paris  which  yielded  more  than  five 
million  gallons  a  day,  throwing  a  column  of  water  to  the 
height  of  a  five-story  house,  and  there  are  several  in 
Australia  which  flow  one  million  or  more  gallons  every 
twenty-four  hours.  In  the  Australian  wells  the  water 
often  rushes  forth  in  such  quantity  that  it  eats  out  a 
channel  many  miles  long  through  which  it  runs.  One 
well  there  has  produced  six  million  gallons  a  day,  and 
some  others  over  one  hundred  thousand  gallons  an  hour, 
furnishing  water  for  vast  flocks  of  sheep  and  serving  also 
to  irrigate  thousands  of  acres  of  land.  Most  of  the  wells, 
however,  yield  only  a  few  gallons  per  minute,  and  pumps 
worked  by  wind,  steam,  gasoline,  or  electricity  are  required 
to  raise  the  water  to  the  surface.  Such  wells  are  known 
as  artesian  wells,  the  name  coming  from  the  province  of 
Artois  in  France,  where  the  first  deep  wells  of  Europe 
were  made.  They  are  now  to  be  found  all  over  our  coun- 
try, the  water  from  them  being  pumped  into  high  tanks 
built  upon  a  framework  of  steel  near  the  houses  or  barns. 


o>»;c 


38.    THE   WATER    SUPPLY   OF    GREAT    CITIES 

THE  waterworks  of  our  great  cities  are  far  more  exten- 
sive than  any  attempted  in  the  past.  More  water  is 
now  used  than  ever  before.  We  require  it,  not  only  for 
scrubbing,  cooking,  washing,  and  bathing,  but  for  water- 


326 


THE   WATER   SUPPLY   OF  GREAT   CITIES 


ing  our  lawns  and  streets,  and  for  manufacturing  purposes. 
New  York,  Chicago,  and  Philadelphia  each  use  several 
hundred  million  gallons  a  day,  and  many  of  our  cities 
daily  consume  more  than  two  barrels  of  water  for  every 
man,  woman,  and  child  in  them.  In  figuring  out  how 
much  water  a  city  should  have,  some  engineers  estimate 
the  amount  at  fifty  gallons  or  upwards  per  person  each 
day,  and  this  is  so  much  that  only  our  modern  waterworks 
can  supply  it. 


Roman  aqueduct. 


It  is  an  important  question  with  every  city,  town,  and 
village  as  to  where  it  shall  get  its  water  supply  and  how  it 
shall  be  carried  into  the  houses.  In  some  great  cities  the 
water  is  from  rivers  and  lakes,  in  others  from  springs  and 


THE  WATER   SUPPLY   OF   GREAT   CITIES 


327 


deep  underground  wells,  or  from  reservoirs  which  are  often 
made  for  the  purpose,  far  away  in  the  mountains.  Most 
of  the  New  York  water  comes  from  the  Croton  River  and 


Aqueduct  across  Harlem  River,   New  York. 

the  Catskill  Mountains.  London  is  supplied  by  the  Thames, 
Petrograd  by  the  Neva,  Berlin  by  the  Spree,  Hamburg  by  the 
Elbe,  and  Rotterdam  by  the  Rhine.  In  our  own  country, 
Washington,  Cincinnati,  Louisville,  St.  Louis,  Pittsburgh, 
and  Philadelphia  are  among  the  largest  cities  supplied  by 
the  rivers  on  whose  banks  they  stand.  Every  one  of  us 
can  probably  tell  what  the  names  of  these  rivers  are  and 
mention  other  towns  which  get  their  water  in  the  same 
way.  The  cities  of  the  Great  Lakes  are  supplied  from 
those  great  natural  reservoirs  and  the  water  of  many  of  the 
big  cities  of  Europe  has  a  similar  source. 

At  the  same  time  some  other  cities  draw  their  water 
from    under  the  ground.     This  is  the  case  with  Indian- 


325 


THE  WATER   SUPPLY   OF   GREAT   CITIES 


apolis,  which  stands  over  a  bed  of  water-soaked  limestone 
into  which  numerous  wells  have  been  bored.  The  wells 
are  on   the  average  about  three  hundred  feet  deep,  and 


Reservoir  and  standpipe,  New  York. 

some  of  them  are  ten  inches  in  diameter.  They  produce 
many  millions  of  gallons  of  water  each  day.  London  gets 
some  of  its  water  also  from  a  chalk  bed  below  it,  but  even 
this  and  the  rivers  do  not  furnish  all  that  it  needs  and  it 
is  now  planned  to  bring  water  in  pipes  from  the  mountains 
of  Wales,  which  are  one  hundred  and  eighty  miles  away. 

But  how  do  the  city  works  force  the  water  into  the 
houses }  We  can  each  find  out  as  to  his  own  town  by 
visiting  its  waterworks,  and  this  I  advise  you  to  do.  The 
methods  are  different  in  different  cities.  The  water  is 
sometimes  distributed  by  gravity  from  reservoirs  or  lakes, 


THE   WATER   SUPPLY   OF  GREAT   CITIES 


329 


or  from  streams  higher  up  than  the  highest  roofs  of  the 
houses.  This  gives  a  great  force  and  when  the  pipes  are 
opened  the  water  may  be  thrown  high  enough  to  be  used 
when  the  buildings  catch  fire.  In  some  places  the  water 
is  pumped  by  machinery  from  other  sources  into  reservoirs 
at  the  right  elevation.  Or  it  may  be  forced  into  stand- 
pipes,  or  pumped  directly  into  the  water  mains  with  such  a 
force  that  it  will  go  through  the  houses  and  have  also  a 
pressure  sufficient  to  protect  them  from  fire. 

In  every  case  the  water  flows  from  the  works  through 
the  chief  streets  of  the  city  in  great  mains,  and  is  carried 
from  them  to  the  side  streets  in  smaller  pipes,  and  by  pipes 
still  smaller  into  the  houses.     These  pipes  are  usually  of 


Croton  dam. 


iron,  and  in  every  large  city,  taken  together,  they  are  many 
miles  in  length.  The  cost  of  making  the  reservoir  and  of 
putting  in  these  pipes,  added  to  the  expense  of  the  ma- 


330 


THE   WATER   SUPPLY   OF  GREAT   CITIES 


chinery  connected  with  the  waterworks,  is  great.  It  is 
easily  paid  by  the  consumers,  however,  each  house  being 
taxed  a  few  dollars  a  year  according  to  the  water  used  in  it. 
There  is  one  thing  we  almost  always  consider  as  to  our 
water  supply.  This  is  that  the  water  be  pure  or  at  least 
free  from  such  germs  and  bacteria  as  might  make  us  ill. 


Irrigation  canal,  Washington. 

The  large  wells  in  which  hung  the  old  oaken  buckets  were 
often  near  stables  and  other  buildings  from  which  foul  mat- 
ter sank  down  into  the  soil  and  drains,  thus  causing  fevers 
and  other  diseases.  In  the  artesian  or  bored  wells,  the 
hole  is  small  and  it  often  goes  down  hundreds  of  feet  through 
the  rock.  Nevertheless  it  should  be  kept  far  away  from 
any  place  from  which  foul  stuff  might  seep  in,  and  the 
water  should  be  carefully  examined  from  time  to  time  that 
we  may  know  it  is  good. 


FURNITURE  33 1 

There  are  several  tests  which  may  be  made,  and  it  is  al- 
ways best  to  be  careful.  If  there  is  any  doubt  whatever, 
the  water  should  be  rejected,  or  sent  to  a  chemist  who  can 
tell  you  what  it  contains. 

Indeed,  the  purity  of  water  is  now  thought  to  be  so  im- 
portant, that  most  of  our  cities  have  built  great  settling 
reservoirs  and  filters  through  which  the  water  is  passed  be- 
fore it  is  let  out  into  the  mains  of  the  city.  In  some  places 
it  is  run  over  beds  of  gravel  and  sand,  which  are  changed 
from  time  to  time  as  they  become  filled  with  impurities. 
There  are  at  Philadelphia  works  of  this  kind  which  filter 
millions  of  gallons  a  day,  and  Washington  and  other  places 
have  fine  filtration  plants.  In  Washington  the  water  is 
brought  from  the  Great  Falls  of  the  Potomac  through  an 
aqueduct  to  a  reservoir,  from  which  it  passes  on  through 
another  aqueduct  nto  the  filtration  beds.  Here  it  is  con- 
ducted into  twenty-nine  great  chambers  built  under  the 
ground.  These  chambers  are  made  of  concrete  and  their 
floors  are  covered  to  a  depth  of  four  feet  with  beds  of  fine 
sand  and  gravel.  The  water  flows  over  these  beds  and 
drains  through  them,  passing  out  clean  and  clear  into  a 
reservoir  or  lake  from  which  it  goes  into  the  pipes  of  the 
city.  Each  of  the  chambers  will  filter  three  million  gallons/ 
a  day,  and  from  sixty  to  seventy-five  million  gallons  of  pure 
water  are  thus  daily  furnished  to  the  people  of  our 
national  capital,  _^ 

39.    FURNITURE 

THE  object  of  our  journey  to-day  is  to  learn  about  the 
furniture  which  forms  to  a  great  extent  the  life  of  the 
home  and  a  large  part  of  its  comfort.     We  first  visit  Japan. 


332  FURNITURE 

The  houses  here  are  comparatively  bare.  There  are  no 
beds  but  thick  wadded  quilts  laid  on  the  soft  white  mats  of 
the  floor,  and  the  only  tables  are  little  low  portable  ones 
which  are  used  chiefly  as  trays  for  bringing  the  food  in 
at  the  meals.  There  are  neither  sofas  nor  chairs.  The 
people  sit  on  their  heels,  and  when  one  writes  a  letter  he 
rests  his  paper  on  his  knees  or  perhaps  lies  on  his  stomach 
and  writes  on  the  floor. 

Crossing  to  the  mainland  of  Asia  we  observe  that  the 
Chinese  of  the  better  classes  have  bedsteads  which  are  often 
beautifully  carved,  but  they  are  without  springs  and  usu- 
ally without  mattresses.  They  have  chairs,  but  the  backs 
are  straight;  and  the  cushions  are  so  thin  that  we  might 
as  well  sit  on  hard  wood.  Many  of  the  poorer  Chinese 
sleep  upon  ledges  built  in  one  side  of  the  room  and  heated, 
as  we  have  already  seen,  by  flues  running  under  them. 
The  Koreans  sleep  on  the  floor  and  their  tables  are  like 
those  of  Japan.  •  As  to  tableware,  all  these  people  have 
beautiful  porcelains,  and  all  use  chopsticks  instead  of  the 
fork. 

In  the  Philippine  Islands  the  poorer  people  sleep  upon 
a  framework  of  bamboo  canes  upon  which  matting  is  laid ; 
and  in  India  the  most  common  bed  is  a  rude  wooden  frame 
with  a  network  of  ropes  as  thick  as  a  clothesline  stretched 
over  it.  The  bed  is  so  small  that  a  grown  man  must  bend 
up  his  legs  and  lie  "  spoon  fashion "  upon  it.  The  East 
Indian  peasant's  home  is  usually  a  hut,  and  his  furniture 
consists  of  little  more  than  a  table,  a  few  stools,  and  a 
bed.  He  has  a  set  of  brass  bowls  to  drink  from,  and  these 
are  scoured  so  that  they  shine  like  gold.  The  Burman 
sleeps  upon  mats,  and  his  pillow  is  a  little  frame  of  bamboo, 


FURNITURE 


333 


which  rests  under  his  neck.     His  dishes  are  bowls  of  lac- 
quer, and  his  cups  ladles  of  coconut  shell. 

The  native  African  sleeps  on  a  bed  of  grass  or  leaves, 
or  perhaps  a  coarse  mat  which  is  rolled  up  during  the 
day  ;  and  the  same  is  true  of  the  many  tribes  of  the  islands 
of  the  Pacific  Ocean.  In  Mohammedan  lands  the  houses 
have  divans  covered  with  soft  cushions  on  which  the  people 


In  a  Filipino  home. 

sit  and  sleep,  and  the  tables  are  often  brass  trays  on  a 
framework  of  wood.  They  use  dishes  and  bowls  at  their 
meals,  but  the  table  is  set  without  knives  or  forks.  Every 
one  has  his  own  knife  and  spoon,  and  he  eats  with  his 
fingers.  In  Europe  and  South  America  the  people  use 
beds,  tables,  and  chairs  much  like  our  own,  and  they  have 
about  the  same  tableware. 

As  we  journey  on  from  country  to  country  we  observe 
that  the  furniture  used  by  a  people  is  to  some  extent  a 
sign  of  its  civilization.     The  first  men  slept  upon  grass  like 


334 


FURNITURE 


the  African  savage.  They  sat  on  the  ground  and  their  tables 
were  logs  and  flat  stones.  After  that  they  built  ledges 
which  they  covered  with  skins ;  and  then  made  stools  and 
rude  tables  of  one  kind  or  another.  The  ancient  Egyptians 
and  Greeks  had  tables  and  chairs ;   and  the  Romans  had 


President  Jackson's  bedroom  at  the  Hermitage. 

couches  about  their  dining  tables  upon  which  they  lay  at 
their  meals. 

During  the  Middle  Ages  the  beds  of  the  rich  were  lux- 
urious. Sheets  of  fine  linen  were  used,  and  the  mattresses 
were  covered  with  silk.  The  beds  were  enormous.  Queen 
Elizabeth  had  one  which  was  seven  feet  wide,  and  certain 
kings  then  held  their  receptions  in  bed.  The  beds  were 
covered  with  hangings,  and  the  posts  at  the  corners  ran 


FURNITURE 


335 


almost  to  the  ceilings.  This  was  the  nature  of  the  better 
beds  of  our  country  in  colonial  times.  George  Washington 
and  others  of  our  early  presidents  slept  inside  the  "  four 
poster  "  ;  and  it  was  such  a  bed  that  Andrew  Jackson  had. 
We  now  regard  inclosed  beds  unhealthful,  and  think  that 
one  should  have  the  windows  wide  open  and  sleep  under 
sheets  and  light  blankets  with  nothing  about  him  to  keep 
out  the  air. 

In  our  colonial  days  the  dining  tables  were  often  long, 
wide  boards  laid  upon  trestles  shaped  like  a  sawhorse, 
which  were  taken  apart  and  placed  against  the  walls  after 
meals.  The  tablecloth  was  called  a  board  cloth.  It  was 
often  of  homespun  linen  made  in  the  family.  Our  first 
settlers  had  but  little  tableware,  and  it  was  some  years 
before  the  two-tined  steel  fork  came  into  general  use. 
They  had  knives,  spoons,  and  cups,  but  trenchers  or 
wooden  platters  took  the  place  of  our  plates,  and  glass- 
ware was  so  rare  that 
it  was  highly  prized. 
Miles  Standish  ate  from 
a  trencher;  and  John 


Winthrop,  the  Governor  of  the  Massachusetts  Colony, 
brought  the  first  fork  to  America  in  1633.  Silver  knives 
and  forks  came  into  use  soon  after  the  Civil  War. 


336 


FURNITURE 


At  that  time  but  few  families  had  china  and  there  were 
no  saucers  or  covered  dishes.  There  were  seldom  enough 
cups  to  go  round,  and  only  enough  chairs  or  stools  for  the 
grown-ups.  Some  families  had  a  narrow  bench  on  each 
side  of  the  table,  and  the  children  often  stood  behind  those 
who  sat  there  and  the  food  was  handed  to  them.  In  other 
places  the  children  stood  at  a  side 
table  and  brought  their  wooden 
plates  to  the  main  table  for  more 
food,  when  their  first  portion  was 
eaten. 

To-day  the  poorest  of  us  have 
enough  knives,  forks,  and  dishes  for 
all  the  children,  and  every  little  one 
has  his  seat  at  the  table.  We  have 
comfortable  beds,  and  easy  chairs  of 
all  kinds.  Our  floors  are  covered 
with  carpets  and  rugs,  and  many  of 
us  live  in  more  luxury  than  the  kings  of  the  past. 

Indeed,  we  now  require  so  much  for  our  homes  that  a 
great  industry  has  grown  up  to  supply  the  demand.  Thou- 
sands of  workmen  are  kept  busy  making  furniture  and  their 
output  is  enormous.  We  have  seven  cities  each  of  which  t 
produces  from  three  million  to  thirteen  million  dollars' 
worth  of  furniture  per  annum.  The  chief  of  these  are 
New  York  and  Chicago,  the  two  largest  cities  of  our  country, 
but  next  comes  Grand  Rapids,  Michigan,  which  makes  a 
specialty  of  such  manufacture. 

Grand  Rapids  has  over  five  hundred  furniture  factories, 
and  it  has  many  thousand  men  who  do  nothing  else  but 
make  bureaus,  beds,  tables,  and  chairs,  and  other  things  for 


FURNITURE 


337 


the  home.  The  industry  began  when  the  city  was  still 
surrounded  by  forests  of  hard  woods,  and  now  although 
these  have  been  cut  away  it  still  thrives  on  account  of  the 
skill  of  its  workmen,  and  the  fame  which  its  furniture  has 
for  beauty,  cheapness,  and  excellence  of  construction. 
Twice  a  year  the  city  has  furniture  fairs  to  which  mer- 
chants from  all  parts  of  the  United  States  and  even  from 


Furniture  factory. 

other  countries  come  to  see  the  new  patterns  and  to  buy 
for  their  stores.  In  some  years  many  thousand  people  visit 
these  fairs,  and  the  sales  amount  to  as  much  as  two 
hundred  million  dollars.  The  town  has  great  exposition 
buildings  for  showing  its  wares. 

But  suppose  we  visit  one  of  the  large  furniture  factories 
They  cover  several  acres  and  are  filled  with  all  sorts  of 
cutting,  sawing,  planing,  and  carving  machines.  Much  of 
the  wood  comes  from  far-away  parts  of  the  world.  There 
is  mahogany   from  Cuba,  Central  America,  and  Africa; 

CARP.  HOUSES  —  22 


338  FURNITURE 

teakwood  from  the  jungles  of  Siam  and  Burma ;  rosewood 
from  the  valley  of  the  Amazon  ;  bamboos  from  Japan  ;  and 
rattan  from  Borneo  and  other  islands  of  the  Dutch  East 
Indies.  There  are  bird's-eye  maple,  oak,  walnut,  and 
cherry  from  different  parts  of  the  United  States,  and 
cheaper  woods  from  our  great  forest  belts.  Some  of  the 
woods  are  costly,  and  especially  the  mahogany,  a  single  log 
of  which  may  be  worth  several  thousand  dollars. 

Indeed,  many  woods  are  so  valuable  that  they  are  used 
in  thin  sheets,  which  are  pasted  or  glued  to  other  wood  so 
firmly  that  the  two  seem  as  one.  The  fine  woods  cover  the 
cheap  woods  like  a  skin,  and  are  so  fitted  on  that  no  one 
would  suppose  that  the  furniture  was  not  wholly  made  of 
the  costly  hard  wood.  Such  work  is  called  veneering. 
The  fine  wood  is  sliced  or  sawed  by  delicate  machinery 
into  great  sheets,  not  so  thick  as  the  cover  of  this  book. 
These  are  then  treated  so  that  they  can  be  wrapped  around 
a  column,  or  made  to  follow  the  curves  of  an  armchair  or 
bedstead.  The  veneer  is  put  on  rough,  and  then  smoothed 
and  polished  so  that  it  shines  like  a  mirror. 

Most  of  our  fine  furniture  is  veneered  in  this  way,  the 
oak,  mahogany,  maple,  and  birch  being  glued  upon  pine, 
poplar,  or  other  cheap  wood.  The  core,  as  the  cheap 
wood  is  called,  is  usually  covered  with  two  thicknesses  of 
veneering,  the  grain  of  the  wood  of  one  running  in  one 
direction  and  that  of  the  other  crossing  it  at  right  angles. 
This  prevents  cracking,  and,  if  properly  done,  makes  the 
furniture  more  durable  than  though  it  were  solid  and  of 
one  wood  throughout. 

The  work  of  polishing  and  carving  is  now  largely  per- 
formed by  machinery.     The  wood  is  smoothed  by  great 


FLOOR   COVERINGS  339 

drums  covered  with  sandpaper,  one  of  which  will  do  as 
much  as  twenty  men  working  by  hand  ;  and  the  carvers  are 
aided  by  cutting  tools,  moved  by  machinery  which  turns 
them  around  at  the  rate  of  fifteen  hundred  revolutions 
a  minute. 

40.    FLOOR   COVERINGS 

IT  is  a  long  way  from  the  dirt  floor  covered  with  leaves, 
grass,  rushes,  or  the  skins  of  wild  beasts  to  the  beautiful 
carpets  and  rugs  to-day.  Just  when  man  began  to  make 
rugs  is  not  known  ;  but  there  are  pictures  of  weavers  at 
work  on  the  stone  walls  of  the  tomb  of  Beni  Hassan  in 
Egypt,  and  we  know  that  those  pictures  were  cut  more 
than  forty-five  hundred  years  ago.  The  ancient  Egyptians 
spread  rugs  before  the  images  of  their  gods,  and  it  is  said 
they  sometimes  laid  them  down  on  the  ground  for  their 
sacred  cattle  to  lie  on. 

Alexander  the  Great  had  splendid  carpets,  and  he  found 
such  carpets  in  use  during  his  march  through  Asia  to 
India.  For  a  long  time  the  finest  rugs  of  the  world  were 
woven  in  Persia,  Turkey,  and  Syria;  and  to-day  the  most 
costly  ones  are  some  which  were  made  in  those  lands  long, 
long  ago.  \Vc  have  old  Persian  rugs  which  sell  for  a 
thousand  dollars  and  upwards  apiece;  and  some  fine  silk 
ones,  beautifully  woven,  have  brought  as  much  as  twenty-five 
thousand  dollars.  Those  old  rugs  were  all  woven  by  hand, 
and  the  best  of  them  took  many  months  in  their  making. 
They  are  composed  of  fine  wool  or  silk,  and  have  colors 
and  tints  which  we  cannot  make  now. 

It  was  during  the  Crusades  that  the  art  of  rug  making 


340 


FLOOR   COVERINGS 


was  carried  from  Turkey  to  Europe;  and  at  that  time 
the  noble  ladies  of  England,  France,  and  other  coun- 
tries made  carpets  and  tapestry  wall-hangings  with  their 

needles  and  upon 
their  rude  looms. 
Later  factories  were 
started,  and  Belgium 
began  to  make  Brus- 
sels carpet,  the  name 
coming  from  the  city 
of  Brussels.  Some 
of  the  Belgian  weav- 
ers went  to  England 
and  settled  at  Bristol, 
where  they  made 
Bristol  carpet,  and 
in  1745  some  French 
weavers  established 
a  factory  at  Wilton, 
England,  and  began  to  make  a  carpet  like  that  we  now 
know  as  Wilton. 

All  these  first  carpets  were  costly.  They  were  woven 
largely  by  hand,  and  only  the  rich  could  afford  them.  In 
colony  times  most  of  our  houses  had  bare  floors,  or  carpets 
woven  of  old  rags  torn  into  strips.  The  strips  were  sewed 
end  to  to  end,  and  then  woven  on  rude  looms  by  the  women 
of  the  family.  A  few  of  our  wealthy  people  had  Turkish 
rugs  and  ingrain  carpets  which  had  been  imported,  but 
these  were  so  rare  that  the  children  were  often  warned 
to  walk  lightly  when  upon  special  occasions  they  were 
admitted  to  the  carpeted  room. 


Persians  weaving  rugs. 


Arabian  rug  merchant. 


(J41) 


342 


FLOOR   COVERINGS 


After  the  Jacquard  loom  was  invented  in  1801,  carpets 
grew  cheaper.  Many  other  improvements  in  weaving 
machinery  followed,  and  we  now  make  all  kinds  of  car- 
pets and  rugs  at  a  very  low  cost.  We  have  enormous 
factories    which    weave    nothina^   else.     There    is   one    at 


Making  carpets. 


Yonkers,  New  York,  tnat  has  one  thousand  looms  run 
by  machinery,  and  turns  out  as  much  as  fifteen  million 
yards  of  carpet  a  year.  This  would  be  enough  to  cover 
a  walk  six  or  seven  feet  wide,  from  where  the  factory 
stands  clear  across  the  United  States  to  San  Francisco. 
The  factory  employs  five  thousand  hands,  and  two  thirds 
of  these  are  women  and  girls. 


FLOOR   COVERINGS 


343 


But  this  is  only  one  factory,  and  we  have  so  many 
others  that  we  make  altogether  more  than  one  hundred 
million  yards  of  carpet  a  year.  We  weave  all  sorts  of 
rugs,  and  carpets  are  now  so  cheap  that  even  the  poor- 
est   can    use    more    or    less    of    them.       We    import    also 


In  a  Japanese  home. 


many  rugs  of  cotton  and  jute  from  Japan,  where  such 
things  are  made  at  low  cost.  We  also  buy  fine  old  rugs 
from  the  Orient,  some  of  which,  although  used  for  years, 
are  more  beautiful  than  any  now  made. 

In  addition  to  these  floor  coverings  of  wool,  silk,  and 
cotton,  we  have  mattings  made  of  a  straw  which  grows 
in  China  and  Japan.  The  straw  is  a  sort  of  grass  or  reed 
which  reaches  a  height  of  six  feet.  When  it  is  ripe 
it  is  cut,  dried,  and  packed  up  in  bales,  and  shipped  to 


344 


FLOOR   COVERINGS 


the  factories.  It  is  there  sorted  and  the  freshest  and 
greenest  of  the  straws  are  taken  for  the  white  parts  of 
the  matting,  while  the  rest  is  put  aside  to  be  dyed.  The 
matting  is  woven  like  cloth,  and  much  of  it  upon  hand 
looms,  operated  by  children.  During  a  visit  to  a  Japa- 
nese factory  I  saw  some  little  ones  of  eight  and  ten  years 
of  age  working  at  the  machines,  and  I  was  told  that  they 


Matting  store  in  japan. 

were  paid  only  a  few  cents  a  day.  Such  matting  is  put 
up  in  rolls  of  forty  yards  each,  and  tightly  packed  for 
shipment  across  the  Pacific  Ocean  to  the  United  States. 
Other  mattings  are  made  of  the  husk  of  the  coconut. 
The  nuts  as  we  buy  them  in  the  store  have  been  shelled, 
much  as  we  shell  black  walnuts.     Around  each  nut  as  it 


FLOOR  COVERINGS  345 

falls  from  the  tree  is  a  husk  as  thick  as  your  finger,  and 
composed  of  a  coarse  fiber,  known  to  commerce  as  coir. 
It  is  from  this  that  coir  matting  is  made.  The  husks  are 
soaked  in  water  until  they  are  soft,  and  the  fiber  is  beaten 
out  with  hard  wooden  clubs.  It  can  now  be  twisted  into  a 
yarn  by  rolling  it  between  the  palms  of  the  hands,  and  this 
yarn  can  be  reeled  upon  bobbins  and  woven  by  looms  into 
mats.  Such  matting  is  coarse  and  durable.  It  is  com- 
monly used  for  offices  and  for  halls  and  stairs  which  have 
very  hard  wear. 

In  addition  to  carpets  and  mattings  we  have  certain  floor 
coverings  which  are  more  or  less  waterproof.  They  are 
used  for  bathrooms,  kitchens,  and  other  such  places.  Among 
them  are  oilcloth  and  linoleum,  made  by  passing  a  sheet 
of  cheap  fiber  through  liquid  glue,  rye  flour,  tapioca,  or 
varnish,  and  then  covering  it  with  a  mixture  of  ocher,  lin- 
seed oil,  and  benzine.  After  this  the  oilcloth  is  printed 
by  means  of  blocks,  each  of  which  gives  one  of  the 
colors  of  the  pattern.  The  cloth  is  then  dried  and 
varnished,  after  which  it  is  trimmed  and  rolled  up  for 
the  market. 

Linoleum  is  usually  made  of  cork  and  linseed  oil,  to 
which  are  added  a  little  resin  and  pigments  of  various 
kinds.  The  cork  is  the  waste  from  the  factories  which  make 
corks  for  bottles,  the  waste  being  ground  into  flour.  In 
the  meantime  the  light  cotton  cloth,  which  forms  the  base 
of  the  linoleum,  has  been  covered  with  layers  of  boiled  lin- 
seed oil.  It  is  upon  these  that  the  ground  cork  mixed 
with  resin  and  oil  is  spread,  the  whole  being  rolled  upon 
a  backing  of  jute.  The  printing  is  done  in  the  same  way 
as  upon  oilcloth. 


346  FLOOR   COVERINGS 

As  we  stop  and  think  of  the  many  places  from  which 
even  the  most  common  things  in  our  homes  come,  we  are 
amazed  at  their  number  and  at  their  wide  distances  apart 
upon  the  face  of  the  globe.  They  involve  the  work  of 
nearly  every  nation  and  tribe  upon  this  big  round  earth, 
giving  employment  to  millions  of  our  world  brothers  and 
sisters,  and  binding  us  to  them  through  commerce  and  in- 
dustry as  they  relate  to  our  shelter.  Take,  for  instance,  the 
materials  which  lie  right  under  our  feet,  that  we  have  been 
considering  to-day.  How  many  long  journeys  it  would 
require  to  visit  the  places  from  whence  they  came,  and  to 
get  well  acquainted  with  the  many  queer  people  who  have 
had  a  part  in  their  making.  The  study  of  carpets  would 
involve  travels  to  all  the  wool-raising  regions  and  also  to 
the  homes  and  factories  in  which  the  carpets  are  made. 
In  the  United  States  we  annually  make  enough  carpet  to 
form  a  strip  reaching  twice  around  the  globe,  requiring 
hundreds  of  factories  and  thousands  of  looms. 

A  study  of  matting  would  necessitate  travels  clear 
around  the  world;  and  an  investigation  of  oilcloths  would 
take  us  to  the  cork  forests  of  Spain,  the  flax  lands  of  India, 
and  to  the  places  whence  come  the  resin,  tapioca,  benzine, 
and  the  other  things  used  in  their  making.  It  would  be 
the  same  with  almost  every  article  as  relates  to  our  shelter, 
and  it  would  be  an  impossibility  for  us  to  cover  them  all. 

We  must  therefore  be  satisfied  with  having  considered 
the  main  branches  in  this  great  field  of  industry  and  com- 
merce, and  our  travels  shall  now  come  to  an  end.  This 
does  not  mean  that  we  have  seen  all  concerning  them 
that  the  world  has  to  show.  We  might  further  investigate 
the  wonders  of  our  furniture,  visiting  the  works  from  which 


FLOOR   COVERINGS  347 

come  the  china  we  have  on  our  tables,  the  pianos  and 
organs  which  give  us  music,  the  pictures  and  other  art 
works  on  our  walls,  and  the  books  which  form  such  a 
necessary  part  of  our  lives.  We  might  go  abroad  to  ex- 
amine the  various  kinds  of  architecture  as  shown  in  the 
mighty  cathedrals  and  other  structures  of  Europe,  and 
look  further  into  the  home  life  of  our  little  brothers  and 
sisters  of  far-away  lands. 

All  these  things  would  be  interesting ;  but  they  are  by 
no  means  essential  to  this  series  of  travels  as  to  "  How  the 
World  is  Housed  "  and  they  may  be  left  to  our  leisure  at 
some  time  in  the  future. 


INDEX 


Adobe  houses,  130. 

Amber,  231. 

American  brickyards,  135-142. 

Andrea  della  Robbia,  141. 

Apartment  bouses,  246. 

Aqueducts,  326. 

Arab  tent  dwellers,  22. 

Argand  burner,  310. 

Arlington,  62. 

Artificial  stones,  122-127. 

Baalbek,  106. 

Babylon,  127. 

Bamboo,  42,  96,  220,  338. 

Bedouin  village  22. 

Bessemer,  160. 

Betel  palm,  98. 

Bohemian  glass,  194. 

Borneo,  houses  of,  41. 

Brass,  180-188. 

Bricks,  127-142. 

Brick  structures  of  antiquity,  127-135. 

Brickyards,  American,  135-142. 

Bronze,  183. 

Building  construction,  243. 

Building  tools,  15,  145. 

Buildings,  world's  tallest,  238-247. 

Buildings  of  the  past,  98-110. 

Burma,  houses  of,  51. 

Cabins,  log,  56. 

Calumet  and  Hecla  Mine,  iMi 

Candles,  279. 

Candle  tree,  281. 

Cane  huts,  36. 

Carrara,  115. 

Carr.-ira  m;irble,  105,  II5. 

Carnaiiba  palm.  98,  381. 

Carpet,  340. 


Caves,  13. 
Cement,  122, 
China,  forests  of,  94. 

Great  Wall  of,  i^o. 

Homes  of,  47,  204. 

Villages  of,  49. 
Chinaware,  336. 
Chinese  inventors,  217. 
Cisterns,  320. 
Cliff  dwellers,  15. 
Coal  gas,  291. 
Coconut  oil,  281. 
Coir,  345. 
Coke,  156. 
Colonial  homes,  55, 
Colonial  schoolhouses,  51. 
Colosseum,  105. 
Concrete,  122. 
Copal,  230. 
Copper,  180-188. 
Cut  glass,  203. 

Desert  of  Sahara,  27. 
Douglas  fir,  76. 

Egypt,  homes  of,  30. 
Electricity,  299-307. 

Heating,  277. 

Lighting,  302. 
Elephants,  logging.  91. 
Eskimos,  15,  25.  27,  262. 
Esparto  grass,  220. 
Europe,  houses  of.  52,  268. 

Fiji,  houses  of,  39. 
Filtration,  331. 
Fire,  257-270. 
Fire  making,  313. 
Fireplaces.  27Z. 


349 


350 


INDEX 


Fire  worship,  260. 

Floor  coverings,  339-346. 

Forestry,  Government  Bureau,  72,  228. 

Forests,  64-73. 

Africa,  64. 

Burma,  90, 

Canada,  206. 

Central,  71. 

Europe,  66. 

Japan,  95. 

North  America,  64,  67. 

Northern,  70. 

Pacific  Coast,  71. 

Roclcy  Mountains,  7I. 

Southern,  71,  227. 

South  America,  64. 

World's  great,  64-73. 
Forks,  335. 
Furniture,  331-339. 

Galena,  182. 
Garfield,  James  A.,  60. 
Gas,  illuminating,  291-299. 
Glass,  188-204. 

Blowing,  202. 

Bohemian,  194. 

Plate,  197. 

Venetian,  192. 
Granite,  103,  1 10-122. 
Great  Pyramid,  99. 
Great  Wall  of  China,  130. 
Guam,  houses  of,  36. 
Gypsum,  126. 

Hawaii,  houses  of,  36. 
Hinges,  164-173. 
Homes,  colonial,  55-64. 
Hotels,  247-256. 
Hot  water  heating,  271. 
House  building,  232-237. 

Museum  of,  164. 
House,  evolution  of,  9-17. 

Plan  of,  232. 
House  lighting,  278-285. 
Houses,  adobe,  130. 

Apartment,  246. 


Borneo,  41. 
Burma,  51. 
China,  46,  264. 
Egypt,  30. 

Eskimo,  15,  25,  27,  262. 
Europe,  52,  268. 
Fiji,  39. 
Guam,  36. 
Hawaii,  36. 
India,  50. 
Japan,  44,  265. 
Korea,  46,  263. 
Log,  56. 

New  Guinea,  39,  41. 
New  Zealand,  266. 
Norway,  52. 
Philippines,  39,  266. 
Porto  Rico,  36, 
Pygmy,  12. 
Salt,  27. 
Samoa,  36. 
School,  61. 
Siam,  51. 
Spain,  55. 
Uganda,  34. 
Huts,  26-36. 
Bamboo,  40. 
Grass,  36. 
Ice,  27. 

Mud,  27,  35,  47. 
Palm-leaf,  11. 
Stone,  34. 

Ice  huts,  27. 

India,  houses  of,  50. 

Indian,  homes  of,  34. 

Wigwams,  56. 
Incandescent  lamp,  302. 
Inns,  native,  247. 
Iron,  142-163. 

Cast,  149. 

Furnaces,  156. 

How  mined,  151. 

Rolling  mills,  156. 

Smelting,  156. 

Transportation  of,  152. 


INDEX 


351 


Iron,  uses  of,  142. 
Visit  to  mines,  154. 
Where  found,  150. 
Wrought,  149,  163. 

Jacquard  loom,  342. 
Japan,  forests,  95. 

Homes  of,  44,  265. 

Hotels,  249. 
Java,  temples  of,  109. 

Kafirs,  homes  of,  32. 
Karnak,  loi. 
Kauri  gum,  230. 
Kerosene,  290. 
Kirghiz,  the,  18. 
Knives,  335. 

Korea,  houses  of,  46,  263. 
Kutab  Minar,  146. 

Lake  Victoria,  homes  on,  33. 
Lamps,  307. 

Betty,  311. 

Carcel,  310. 

Nernst,  307. 
Latchstring,  the,  61. 
Lead,  180,  224. 
Limestone,  114. 
Lincoln,  Abraham,  59. 
Linoleum,  345. 
Linseed  oil,  226. 
Locks,  164-173. 
Log  cabins,  56. 
Logging  industry,  73-83. 
Lumber,  73-90. 

Camps,  73,  81. 

Rafts,  79. 

Mahogany,  337. 

Maori,  house,  266. 

Marble,  104,  107,  108,  110-12X 

Masai,  the,  32. 

Matches,  307.  313,  315. 

Matting,  343. 

Mortar,  124. 

Mount  Pcntelikon,  104,  115. 


Mount  Vernon,  63. 
Mud  huts,  27,  35,  47. 
Mulberry  trees,  218. 

Nails,  164-173. 

Negritos,  homes  of,  13. 

New  Guinea,  homes  of,  39, 41. 

New  Zealand,  266. 

Nile  Valley,  30. 

Nipa  palm,  98. 

Norway,  houses  of,  52. 

Obelisks,  103. 

Office  buildings,  241. 

Oils,  221. 

Oilcloth,  345. 

Oil  tanks,  287. 

Oil  wells,  282. 

Ore,  transportation  of,  151. 

Paints,  221. 

Palm  trees,  97. 

Paper,  manufacture  of,  207,  209,  219. 

Paper,  wood  pulp,  204-212. 

Papyrus,  213. 

Parchment,  215. 

Parthenon,  104. 

Pentelikon,  Mount,  104,  115. 

Perganius,  215. 

Petroleum,  281,  286-290. 

Crude,  289. 
Philippines,  houses  of,  39,  266. 
Pig  iron,  159. 
Pigments,  222. 
Pine,  89,  227,  315. 
Plaster,  122. 
Plaster  of  Paris,  126. 
Plymouth  Rock,  56. 
Pompeii,  132. 
Poplar,  205. 
Porcelain  pagoda,  146. 
Portland  cement,  123 
Porto  Rico,  houses  of,  36. 
Pygmy,  houses  of,  12. 
Pyramids,  99. 


352 


INDEX 


Quarries,  granite,  no. 
Marble,  107,  1 10-122. 
Slate,  no. 

Rattan,  338. 
Real  estate  deed,  234. 
Red  lead,  224. 
Reservoirs,  329. 
Roofing  tiles,  141. 
Rosewood,  338. 
Rugs.  339- 

Sahara  Desert,  the,  22. 

Sakiyeh,  323. 

Salt  houses,  27. 

Samoa,  houses  of,  36 

Sandstone,  112. 

Sawmills,  78,  83. 

Saws,  86. 

Schoolhouses,  col<  iiial.  61. 

Screws,  164-173. 

Sepia,  225. 

Sheepskin,  216. 

Siam,  houses  of,  51. 

Skyscraper,  the,  242. 

Slnte,  113. 

Smith,  Captain  John,  59. 

Spam,  houses  of,  55. 

Spruce,  205. 

Standish,  Captain  Miles,  59. 

Steam,  271. 

Steel,  149,  160. 

Stone  huts,  34. 

Stoves,  271. 

Sun-dried  brick,  30. 


Taj  Mahal,  108. 
Teakwood,  91,  338. 
Temple  of  Heaven,  109. 
Tent  dwellers,  17-24. 
Tent  making,  18. 
Terra  cotta,  141. 
Thebes,  loi. 
Tiles,  141. 
Timgad,  134. 
Tin,  173-180. 
Titles  to  property,  233. 
Tools,  building,  15. 
Tower  of  Babel,  127. 
Turkish  hotels,  249. 
Turpentine,  228. 

Uganda,  houses  of,  34. 

Varnish,  221. 
Veneer,  338. 
Venetian  glass,  192. 
Vesuvius,  132. 

Wall  paper,  220. 
Warming  pans,  274. 
Washington,  George,  59. 
Water,  317-331. 
Water  power,  306. 
Water,  sources  of,  327. 
Wells,  317,  324. 
White  ants,  32. 
White  lead,  180,  224. 
Wigwams,  56. 
Wood,  fibrous,  206 

Zinc,  173-180. 


This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below 


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